Poultry farming collapsing in Kano, here is why

Investigation by Daily Trust on Sunday revealed that in Kano State, several poultry farms have been closing down in most areas in the state despite the recent high cost of eggs and chicken. It was also gathered that various factors have been attributed to the closure of the business.

It was revealed that issues such as high cost of poultry feed, cost of chicks, incessant bird flu cases, poor market among others are the main issues that the farmers have been battling with, to survive in the business.

According to Alhaji Kabiru Husseini, who claimed to have been in the poultry business for over 15 years, poultry farming in Kano State is becoming unattractive not even to those that wanted to venture into it but also to those that have already ventured in it. He explained that a bag of poultry feed for layers that was initially sold at N3, 000 is now N6, 700 while a day-old chick that was sold between N100 and N150 is now N400.

“Each year, a poultry farmer in Kano State moves inches backward in the business instead of forward, the feed is costly so also the chicks. It is clear that most poultry farms in the state are classified into Small Scale investments and it is clear that not all can continue producing in such harsh circumstances. I can authoritatively tell you that over 20 poultry farms have closed down at Kumbotso/Madobi axis alone,” revealed Alhaji Kabiru.

Another poultry farmer Shehu Bala said he closed his farm some few days ago after being affected by the bird flu outbreak in the state. According to him, he had reduced the number of birds in his farm due to high cost of production and unfortunately his farm was affected by bird flu.

“I am tired, to be honest, and I am presently considering other businesses instead of poultry farming. For 4 years, I have had to reduce the number of birds in my farm due to the high cost of production, I have downsized the number of my staff and now the issue of bird flu made it worse,” narrated Shehu.

It was reliably gathered that poultry farms at Gunduwawa and some parts of Warawa Local Government Areas have also closed down as other poultry farms in some areas were said to have been doing the same.

Recently, no fewer than eight poultry farms have so far been affected by the Avian Influenza known as bird flu and thousands of birds were killed. The case was confirmed by the state ministry of agriculture. While confirming the outbreak, Director Livestock at the Ministry, Dr Bello Bala, revealed that after collecting samples from the affected farms, it was confirmed that there was an outbreak of bird flu.

He added that Kano State government in collaboration with Poultry Farmers Association of Nigeria (PAN) had since taken measures to curtail the spread of the flu to other farms. He added that so far 8 farms have been affected and thousands of birds have been depopulated to arrest the spread of the influenza to other farms.

Similarly, the state chapter chairman of PAN, Alhaji Umar Usman Kibiya, stated that when farmers in the state noticed that their birds are dying en mass, they quickly alerted the state chapter of PAN, and action was immediately taken by the association.