Dr Peter Boamah Otokunor, Director of Presidential Initiatives in Agriculture and Agribusiness, has rejected claims that the government’s Nkokonkitinkiti poultry policy has failed, describing such assertions as defective.
He said the intervention, which forms part of President John Dramani Mahama’s broader Poultry Farm to the Table initiative, was designed to revive Ghana’s poultry industry through household and commercial production models.
Speaking in an interview on Channel One TV on Tuesday, November 10, Dr Otokunor insisted that the programme was still pursuing its intended objectives.
“No, it has not failed. It’s a very defective assertion if anybody should know,” he said.
He explained that the household component was intended to provide families with alternative sources of income and improve their access to poultry products by supporting them to raise birds in their backyards.
The commercial component, meanwhile, involves providing existing poultry farms with chicks, feed and medication to expand production.
Dr Otokunor said the government was also pursuing an integrated approach to developing the industry, with investment in processing facilities to ensure that increased production translated into value addition and employment.
“When you are growing the poultry industry, and you don’t do it in an integrated manner where industry value addition can be done, processing can be done, then you would be joking,” he stated.
He cited the construction of the Bechem Poultry Processing Plant as part of efforts to strengthen the processing capacity of the industry.
According to him, the broader objective is to increase domestic poultry production and reduce Ghana’s estimated annual expenditure of $500 million on poultry imports.
Dr Otokunor said processing facilities would also help local producers respond to changing consumer preferences, as demand extends beyond whole chicken to specific products such as wings, feet, thighs and breasts.
He said the household component was equally intended to equip beneficiaries with the skills and experience to expand into small- and medium-scale poultry businesses.
Beneficiaries would be able to sell some of their birds, reinvest the proceeds and gradually grow their operations, he explained.
“And so we are looking for people who are able to transform this intervention into businesses that will create jobs for other people to work with them,” he said.
