Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram attacks lead to increased costs of animal feed ingredients

POULTRY farmers across the country are reducing the number of times they feed their livestock to sometimes as little as once a day due to the spiralling cost of chicken feed which has ballooned in recent months due to insecurity concerns across the country.

 

Nigeria has a growing poultry industry, fuelled by increasing demand but of late the sector has been hit by the rising cost of ingredients, particularly maize, whose price has increased by as much as 100%. For instance, a 100kg bag of maize, which used to cost about N6,000 in April, is now being sold for about N12,000.

 

Also, the cost of fishmeal, another important ingredient in poultry feeds, has increased by 60% as a  kilogramme that used to sell for N500 now costs about N800. This development has led farmers to be ration food for their birds or mixing their feeds with lesser nutritious ingredients.

 

This has consequently led to a drop in egg production as malnourished birds do not produce eggs maximally. Findings showed that the high cost of maize was due to low cultivation as a result of the activities of Boko Haram insurgents in the north, recurring attacks by Fulani herdsmen across the country and flooding.

 

This situation was confirmed in the 2016 Maize Outlook by a consulting firm, Novus Agro Nigeria. According to the outlook, the price of maize hit N65,000 per metric tonne in January 2016, up from around N45,000 in October 2015 and has been on steady rise since then.

 

Onallo Akpa, the director-general of the Poultry Association of Nigeria, said: “Last year, Nigeria produced over 14bn table eggs and was recognised as the number one egg producer in Africa. However, we have not been able to calculate the production figure in the last one year because of the crisis we are going through.

 

"But surely, our egg production figure has dropped. The industry is being threatened now due to high cost of poultry feeds."

 

Emmanuel Omokwale, the chairman of Dedora Nigeria, Lagos, said his farm had been recording losses every day. He lamented that before, his farm used to produce 300,000 crates of eggs per day but could hardly produce 1,000 crates now because of the rise in the prices of raw materials.