Rev. Dr. Kwabena Darko, Chairman of the Poultry Development Board (PDB) on Thursday urged poultry farmers to adopt the right processes to stay above the bottom-line, while the board and government addressed policies militating against the industry. He said farmers should aggressively search for markets for their products because a buyers market, where you have to lure people to buy your goods, had supplanted the era of a sellers market that existed in the past. Rev. Dr Darko was addressing members of the Volta Poultry Farmers Association (VOPFA) in Ho as part of the Boards tour of the regions to interact with poultry farmers, to get a feel of their problems and also explain the Board's mandate to them. He said the approach to poultry farming must be scientific, where any process in the chain of production skipped could result in poor quality or quantity of birds or eggs produced. Rev. Dr Darko, who owns Darko Farms, one of the largest and successful poultry businesses in the country, conceded that, high interest rates, tariffs, low incomes and other policies had made production in Ghana tedious and uncompetitive. He said imported poultry to Ghana came mainly from countries where subsidy regimes still existed in different forms, which coupled with their superior scientific approach to production sold cheaper than local birds. Rev. Dr. Darko gave an example of the US from where a refrigerated ship could sail with well-processed poultry products and arrive in Africa in 10 days for distribution. "You may call that dumping, but they call it planning," he stated. Rev. Dr. Darko said the Board was initiating a five-year poultry development programme for adoption and implementation by government as well as other stakeholders. He said the Board since its inception had been working through stakeholder representatives on issues concerning the industry and in recent past the Bird Flu Scare. Rev Darko said though the flu had been detected in some neighbouring countries, Ghana had not been affected yet. He said the Board was however, in the process of working out a compensation criteria to govern compensations if the deadly flu was detected in Ghana and there was the need to destroy birds. Dr Raphael Folitse, Principal Veterinary Officer said every serious farmer must take bio-security seriously. He said a farmer under poultry bio-security system must construct structures that would keep rodents, wild birds and reptiles, which were agents of spreading diseases, at bay. Dr Folitse said wild birds, for example were known to carry and spread some of the virulent strains of the newcastle disease, which could devastate any poultry businesses. He said human movement in and out of farms should be minimal and precautions such as footbaths with disinfectants should be a routine practice for all callers to reduce the incidence of micro-organisms on the farms. Gideon Akator, Chairman of VOPFA said the association was planning a poultry processing plant to create a ready market for broiler farmers and old layers. Source: GNA