Coronavirus: Alarm bells ring in Nigeria as COVID-19 cripples poultry, fish farming

16 Mai 2020

Abuja, Nigeria, May 16 (Infosplusgabon) - In Nigeria, the COVID-19 outbreak is already taking its toll on all sectors of the economy, including agriculture, with the pandemic inflicting damages worth millions to farmers and agro-processors across the country.

According to the local Daily Trust newspaper, "Experts are already raising fear that if urgent measures are not taken to protect farmers, Nigeria may experience severe food shortages."

Leading this call is the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which has warned that nations must evolve measures to mitigate hunger associated with the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr. Ibrahim Ezikiel, President, Poultry Association of Nigeria. Mr Marco Cantillo, FAO’s Deputy Director, Agriculture Development Economics Division, in a statement issued in Abuja, warned that agricultural activities will be greatly affected because of the pandemic.

In Nigeria, frustration is already building up among farming communities as they watch their investments go down the drain with poultry and fishery subsectors being the worst hit as the rainy season is just setting in.

From North to South, poultry and fish farmers are lamenting the impact of COVID-19 on their businesses with some reported to have closed up.

On how it affects the poultry sector, the National President of the Poultry Farmers Association of Nigeria, Mr Ezekiel Ibrahim, said members of his association have about a third of their resources due to the pandemic.

He blamed this on the lack of synergy between federal and state governments which has caused serious logistic and distribution challenges.

“Now in this situation, most of our farmers have lost between 35 and 40 per cent of their resources because sometimes you cannot sell but they keep producing,” he said.

“Like hatcheries, day-old-chicks when you hatch you cannot deliver them to farms. Eggs are supposed to be the number one thing as a palliative, in fact, the demand for eggs is supposed to have risen drastically due to its nutritional content but the reverse is the case,” he added.

He said the impact on the poultry sector has a domino effect on the rest of the agricultural chain.

“Anything that affects poultry affects other sectors of agriculture. If you cannot sell day-old chicks, how can you afford to buy poultry feeds? If you cannot sell poultry feed, how will you be able to buy soybeans and corn? So these are the challenges,” he said.

In Kano State, noted for its thriving poultry business, reports indicate that farmers are ready for harvesting but couldn’t do that due to the lockdown order occasioned by the pandemic.

The leader of the poultry farmers in the state, Alhaji Umar Usman Kibiya, said retailers of poultry products are no longer operating in the state, making it difficult for the farmers to sell their produce.

“Chicken joints, restaurants, hotels and other eateries are not operating during the lockdown and these are the major consumers of poultry products, as you are aware. Moreover, the present weather isn’t helping matters as eggs keep getting spoiled because we can’t take them to the market."

From Lagos, a local poultry farmer, Joel Oduware, decried the growing level of egg glut in the country. Oduware, who is also an egg processor, said local egg farmers have begun counting their losses due to dwindling demand for eggs at this period with the closure of schools.

“Presently, the major problem poultry farmers are experiencing is not related to chicken, but in the demand and supply for eggs. Farmers are complaining of egg glut because schools have been shut for a long time and this is what is creating problems for the sellers too. Statistics have shown that school children consume more eggs than adults do.’’

The glut, he said, has caused the prices of eggs to fall from the usual N1,000 (about US$ 3) per crate to N750 as the supply has overtaken demand. Poultry business is strugling to survive the pandemic.

It is also not a good time for fish farmers. The National President of Catfish and Allied Fish Farmers Association of Nigeria (CAFFAN), Mr Rotimi Oloye, said right now, local markets are grossly “inadequate to take local supplies and with curfew here and there, the market is marked off.”

He said this has brought fish prices below the cost of production. As a result, Mr Oloye worries that many farmers would not be able to get back into production, and this will eventually result to shortages in supplies as demand eventually pick up because as the population will continue to grow.

Alhaji Hassan Mundu, a renowned catfish and tilapia farmer and owner of one of the biggest tilapia hatcheries with supply chain across northern Nigeria, said the lockdown is taking a huge toll on production and has brought his supply chain to “near-zero”.

The social distances measures and disruption of market activities, as well as the fall in purchasing power of people, have forced down demands for fish.

The National Vice President of the Tilapia Aquaculture Developers Association of Nigeria, Nurudeen Tiamiyu, said on Saturday in Lagos that access to feed ingredients coming from other states is a major challenge because of the interstate lockdown.

“Transport cost has gone up and prices of feeds have gone up too. With forex issues, the imported condiments of production have gone up,” he lamented.

And from Plateau State, a fish farmer in Zarmaganda area of Jos, Olufemi Odueko, said the farmers have lost many fishes to the impact of the pandemic.

Odueko, who is also the CEO of Catfish Expert Global Ventures, said the problem most fish farmers are facing now is the inability to purchase fish feeds, which has caused the fishes to starve.

This usually makes them to shrink or die. The drop in demand, he said, is a direct consequence of the closure of pepper soup and sit-out joints, who are the major consumers of fish.

The projections for the immediate future are not as great as Mr Marco Cantillo, FAO’s Deputy Director, Agriculture Development Economics Division, fears that global economic activities will be greatly affected because of COVID-19 pandemic.

“Large scale consequences for the incomes and welfare of all, but especially for the most vulnerable food import-dependent countries. In the absence of timely and effective policy responses, this will exacerbate an already unwelcomed increase in the number of people who do not have enough to eat,” he said.

FIN/ INFOSPLUSGABON/LMK/GABON2020

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