Poultry farmers in trouble as gov't opts for Chinese mackerel for Free SHS students instead of eggs
The Akufo-Addo-led government's policy on free Senior High School Education generated a lot of controversy concerning its implementation.
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However, it also served as a job creation avenue for some people who were into the poultry farming business since the government patronised them to feed students for free.
In a post sighted by YEN.com.gh on Facebook, Kofi Asare, who happens to be a farmer and an education policy influencer said prior to the COVID-19, students were being fed eggs at least three times a week.
Source: Facebook
He said after schools were reopened, the purchase of eggs for schools suddenly took a nosedive.
"...schools were doing at least 3 eggs a week. This translated into 150,000 crates/week (about 3.6 million pieces of eggs)," he said.
This situation he said, became a worry to poultry farmers who had invested in more layers to sustain the demand from the SHS so they found out from large-scale egg producers in Kumasi, Ejura, Kwabre & SHS heads to know why.
He further went on to explain that in January 2021, a communique came from Accra that a company (Lamens Ventures) had been contracted by the government to supply imported Chinese mackerel to all SHSs in Ghana.
According to him, since the company started supplying the Chinese Mackerel, many schools started feeding their students with one egg per week instead of three.
This, Kofi Asare, said reduced the demand for eggs by 70%, forcing many poultry farmers who had invested in Layers to shut down and lay off labour.
He added that the increase in the price of maize only made matters worse for the poultry farmers.
He, therefore, appealed to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to review some of his policy decisions as they are now creating unemployment and poverty.
In other news, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has asked for a tariff increase to support its operations.
Speaking on Thursday, April 8, 2021, the Managing Director of the state power distributor, Kwame Agyeman-Badu said the company needs the money to improve its operations amid incessant power outages across the country.
“If we get the increase, we will love it [but] that will be up to the PURC because, no matter what we propose, they will ultimately decide,” he stated.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
