By Daniel Essiet
Producers still are battling shortage of maize to meet feed requirements, the President, Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), Ezekiel Ibrahim has said.
He made this known in a chat with The Nation, explained that although new maize has arrived the market, but that they were not good for feed because of large water content.
During the lockdown, scarce supplies and high prices on feed market affected thousands of poultry farmers as the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult for farmers to go to their farms and for millers to be able to distribute enough feed among poultry farms at a guaranteed price.
He noted that the importation of 262,000 metric tonnes of maize saved Nigeria from a food crisis.
He said that PAN was in support of the maize import as part of the measures by the Federal Government to bridge the supply gap forced on local farmers by several factors, including flooding, which has ravaged several farms and the COVID-19 pandemic.
He called on the Federal Government to peg interest rates on borrowing to the sector to a maximum of three per cent to encourage private sector investments in agriculture.
Ibrahim said the government should reduce the interest rate to zero percent to assist poultry farmers.
