Mr Adama Musa, the 2006 National Best Poultry Farmer, has appealed to the government to expedite action on the mechanization of agriculture to avoid food shortage, especially maize, which is a major feed component for poultry. He expressed concern about the recent scarcity of maize and the hardship encountered by about 200 poultry farmers in the Dormaa Districts and noted that the situation could recur “unless Ghana goes into intensive agricultural mechanization to ensure abundance of food for consumption and for other purposes”. Mr Adama, Chief Executive Officer of A.M. Farms at Dormaa-Ahenkro in the Brong Ahafo Region, was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Dormaa-Ahenkro on the scarcity of maize, which had compelled some poultry farmers to close down part of their farms, offering their birds for sale at give-away prices. He noted that incentives in some areas such as the cocoa industry was luring the youth into that sector and making staple food production less lucrative in some parts of the country. “Apart from the importation of cheap poultry products into the country, the poultry industry is also confronted with the activities of middlemen at all levels of our business, resulting in distortions in what we purchase for use on our farms and the products we sell to consumers,” Adama Musa said. He appealed to government to ensure a congenial atmosphere for those who make necessary inputs into the poultry industry to enable them offer the assistance expected of them. Mr Adama, however, conceded that poultry farmers in their current state and production capacity could not provide the nation’s poultry needs to warrant suspension of imports. He emphasized that imports became necessary due to the absence of facilities for local farmers to expand their farms and process their produce for ready markets. Source: GNA