Project Coordinator of the Food System Resilience Programme (FSRP), Mr. Osei Owusu Agyeman, has announced on Friday that Ghana’s poultry industry is experiencing a significant revival, aimed at building sustainable businesses within the value chain to reduce the country’s food deficit.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency, Mr. Agyeman highlighted the recent delivery of about 130,000-day-old chicks to selected commercial poultry farmers in the Ashanti Region as part of the first phase of the Poultry Intensification Scheme under the West Africa Food System Resilience Programme (FSRP).
This initiative, implemented by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, seeks to rejuvenate the broiler industry in Ghana.
Other regions set to receive day-old chicks under the scheme include Bono, Eastern, Greater Accra, Central, and Volta, contributing to the mission of the MOFA-FSRP to revive the poultry sector.
The Poultry Intensification Scheme, funded by the World Bank, is being rolled out in phases.
Beneficiaries receive input credit, including around 160,000 day-old chicks, 180,000 kilograms of feed, and supplies of vaccines in the initial allocations. Additionally, farmers receive training in best modern practices and climate-smart technologies within the poultry industry.
Participants in the scheme will also have access to matching grants for procuring equipment to support post-production processing and cold storage. The programme aims to produce approximately two million broiler birds annually, supported by a $12.5 million World Bank facility.
Under this programme, 22 commercial anchor farmers across the nation will be selected and supported to produce, process, and market two million birds annually over the next three years.
To qualify, applicants must have been involved in poultry (broiler) production, processing, and marketing for at least the last five years, be registered with the Registrar General or another statutory body, and have linkages with smallholder farmers.
Commercial farmers must also be listed in the databases of their respective District Directorate of Agriculture, include at least 10 percent women and 10 percent youth in both upstream and downstream activities of the value chain, and comply with the requirements of regulatory bodies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, Ghana Fire Service, Food & Drugs Authority, Ghana Standards Authority, and the World Bank.
The scheme aligns with the PFJ 2.0 initiative, targeting poultry self-sufficiency output of 400,000 metric tonnes per year by 2028. Mr. Agyeman emphasized the project’s themes of sustainability, ownership, and public/private engagement, aiming to sustain the broiler value chain.
He also mentioned efforts to revive local hatcheries and implement youth incubation programmes to build and sustain businesses within the value chain.
Dr. Abdul Razak Okine, Deputy Director of the Animal Production Directorate at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, stated that the project, in line with the Government’s Planting for Food and Jobs 2.0, is generating excitement among farmers nationwide. He noted that it is attracting many young people and women and is expected to help close the food deficit gap.
The West Africa Food System Resilience Programme (FSRP) is a World Bank-funded initiative championed by ECOWAS, involving participating countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Chad, Sierra Leone, Togo, and Chad. In Ghana, the project focuses on the intensified production, marketing, and consumption of rice, maize, broiler poultry, tomatoes, and soybeans for the poultry industry.
4o