Scarcity of egg, chicken imminent — FIPAN

Feed millers, under the aegis of Feed Industry Practitioner Association of Nigeria (FIPAN), has said scarcity of egg, chicken and other livestock is imminent due to unavailability and increase in the cost of maize and soya beans.

FIPAN said if the Federal Government did not intervene, Nigerians might depend on egg, chicken and other livestock from foreign countries, whose cost would be outrageous.

The association President, Mr. Raymond Isidinaso, addressing reporters at a briefing, in company with other executive members, said the high cost of egg, chicken, fish and other poultry products was caused by scarcity of maize and soya bean, which are essential ingredients in the production of poultry feed.

FIPAN urged the Federal Government to intervene by releasing grains from the nation’s reserve, to alleviate the association’s plight.

Isidinaso said there should be urgent release of between 100,000 and 200,000 metric tons of maize and sorghum from the grain reserves.

He said where the government did not “have this volume of grains, a short window should be created for the importation of maize now and indeed kept as a mechanism to cushion shortages whenever they occur in future, as the projection for 2023 grains harvest is even worse.”

He urged the newly-appointed Minister of Agriculture, Alhaji Abubakar Kyari, to be ready for the challenges ahead and tackle food insecurity, to guarantee food sufficiency across the country.