Government to roll out poultry support to commercial farmers in June
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture is set to begin distributing poultry to large-scale commercial farmers in June, as part of renewed efforts to revive Ghana’s poultry industry and cut reliance on imports.
The intervention falls under the broader poultry revitalisation drive anchored on the ‘Nkoko Nkitinkiti’ Programme, which has already been rolled out to households in several parts of the country.
Chief Technical Advisor to the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Kwesi Etu-Bonde, explained that the extension of the programme to commercial farmers was delayed due to pending financial and procurement approvals.
“We wanted to move quickly, but there are authorisation and commitment processes that must be completed. Once those are finalised, we expect to hit the ground running by June,” he said.
He noted that government is taking steps to strengthen the entire poultry value chain by promoting both public and private sector investment in production and processing.
According to him, Ghana’s poultry sector continues to face intense competition from imported products, many of which benefit from subsidies in their countries of origin.
“Every broiler imported into Ghana has been subsidised by the exporting country, while local producers do not enjoy such support, making competition very challenging,” he stated.
Mr. Etu-Bonde further stressed the need to expand poultry processing capacity to meet growing domestic demand, indicating that existing facilities are insufficient.
“We need significantly more processing plants if we are to meet the country’s poultry demand,” he added.
Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer of Agri-Impact Group Limited, Dr. (h.c.) Daniel Fahene Acquaye, has called for a comprehensive poultry master plan to address bottlenecks across the value chain.
He clarified that the ‘Nkoko Nkitinkiti’ Programme is only one component of a wider poultry development strategy.
“Many people assume the programme represents the entire poultry revitalisation agenda, but it is just one part. The broader strategy also targets commercial and small-to-medium scale farmers,” he explained.
Dr. Acquaye added that ongoing data collection by district authorities will inform the next phase of the programme, aimed at expanding production capacity and attracting investment into the sector.
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