President John Mahama is set to launch one of government’s flagship agricultural programmes, Nkoko Nkitinkiti, in October this year. The project, when fully implemented, is expected to cut the $300 million Ghana spends annually on importing frozen chicken.
According to the President, Ghanaian farmers who sign up for the initiative will receive free government-provided vaccinations for their birds. He explained that the programme will operate in three tiers, large-scale producers, medium-scale producers, and household producers.
Speaking during a visit to the National Service Authority Poultry Farm at Papao in Accra, Mahama outlined the structure of the project:
“Next month we’re going to launch the Nkoko Nkitinkiti project. It is going to have three layers. The first will be the large-scale producers, who are going to get about 4 million day-old chicks. The second will be the medium-scale producers, who will get about 3 million day-old chicks. And the third will be the household producers.” He added:
“Every household, every young entrepreneur who signs up—you identify your site and your chicken house, and then we’ll give you the day-old chicks. We’ll also supply you with the feed and vaccinate the chicks for you.”
The President also disclosed that government plans to construct poultry processing plants across the country to support the growth of the industry.
“We’re going to build processing plants in different parts of the country. The first processing plant is currently going through procurement, and once the Public Procurement Authority approves it, we will begin construction,” he said.
Mahama stressed that once the project is fully operational, it will end Ghana’s dependence on imported chicken within three years.
“Once the Nkoko Nkitinkiti project takes off, we believe that in three years we will be producing almost 100% of the chicken we consume in Ghana. That means we can stop bringing in frozen chicken from outside, we don’t even know how those chickens were raised,” he emphasised.
Source: Myxyzonline.com/Wisdom Hedezome
