Nigeria tipped to become self-sufficient in poultry with natnuepreneur
In a bid to align with the Federal Government’s move to diversify the economy away from oil through agriculture, natnudO foods has resolved to boost poultry production in the country through its natnuepreneur scheme.
The natnuepreneur scheme which is currently running with 250 farmers will help reduce the country’s food import bill and also ensure self-sufficient in chicken production within the next few years.
“We are working tirelessly to meet local demand and to ensure that Nigeria is self sufficient in chicken,” Ayoola Oduntan, group managing director of natnudO Foods, said during a media tour on the company’s farm recently.
“With little bit of patient and support, Nigeria will be self sufficient in poultry production. We are ready to lead the drive of the change we intend to achieve,” Oduntan said.
Currently, Africa biggest economy needs more than a million metric tonnes of poultry products annually to meet local demand. Official figure shows that local farmers are only able to produce 300,000 metric tonnes, leaving a wide gap of more than 1.2 million metric tonnes.
This has made smuggling of poultry products; especially chicken and turkey have a big business for importers of these products.
As a result of this, the government placed ban on the importation of poultry products. But most of the bans placed on poultry products have not been effective and have made no real impact on actual foreign imports.
Imported poultry products, especially chicken and turkey, have been identified as causative agent in non- communicable diseases (NCDs) and antibiotics resistance. Some of these health conditions include hypertension, kidney disease, and cancer.
To bridge the demand and supply gap and attract youths into farming, natnudO foods natopreneur will be replicated in different parts of the country.
“The company is working tirelessly to meet the local capacity in the country replicating its natnuepreneur scheme in different parts of the country over the next three months,” said Oduntan who is also the president of the poultry association of Nigeria.
Oduntan also stated that the company will galvanise abandoned farms to spring back into production, encourage farmers who were underutilising their capacity to improve their capacity and expanding the capacities of those who are fully utilised to boost the quantum of chicken available.
He said hundreds of thousand farms have been abandoned, saying that most of the farms in the country are either working below capacity or are closed down while calling on the need to revive these farms to boost the nation’s agricultural sector.
In his words, “We are targeting 10 per cent of the total production over the next five years as a company, adding that the company has a lot initiatives targeted at attracting more farmers into the industry through its natnuepreneur scheme.
He noted that the industry for chicken has a turnover of N600 billion with about six cycles in a year, saying that a funding gap of about N100 billion is required for broilers alone in the poultry industry currently.
According to Oduntan, “If we divide this into six cycles a year, we will be looking a funding gap of about N100 billion for broilers which is the amount of money required to fund one cycle out of the six cycles we have in a year and a N100 billion for broilers is the amount of money required to fund one section of our business. We believe if a N100 trillion is pumped into this industry, it will yield a global turnover of over a trillion.”
He said the company is currently building what will be its biggest fourth factory to Owerri to complement the existing three factories it has to produce day old chicks and distribute across the country.
“We are also building a hatchery in Owerri as we speak to reduce the cost of transportation of our customers from the east. We want to tell Nigerians that with a little bit of patience and support, Nigeria can be self-sufficient in the production of chicken,” he assured Nigerians.
Josephine Okojie