The Poultry Association of Nigeria has appealed to the Federal Government to urgently approve importation of animal feed grade of maize to save poultry industry from collapse.

The General Secretary of PAN in the South-West, Dr Olalekan Odunsi, who led leaders of the association to a press conference in Ibadan on Tuesday said 10 million jobs provided by poultry were under threat due to scarcity of maize and soya beans.

Odunsi said the acute shortage of maize and soya beans which are major components of poultry feeds had  caused business failure for some poultry farmers.

The association also urged South-West governors to encourage maize production.

According to him, investment in poultry is worth about N2tr while it provides jobs for about 10 million others in the value chain.

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Odunsi said, “The scarcity and astronomical prices of soya beans and maize are  threatening additional five million poultry jobs in the short term except Your Excellency intervenes.

“After much public outcry by the poultry farmers, a concession was given to some poultry stakeholders to import 262000MT in 2020. This had long been done and in the onset of harvest which was November, 2020, it was obvious that our local production was grossly inadequate to support the poultry industry through 2020.

“We are now calling on the government to approve urgent importation of animal feed grade of maize to sustain the over 50 million layers, 100 million broilers, one million breeders, and other classes of poultry until the next harvest season.”