The PAN chairman, Mr Godwin Egbebe, made the call in an interview with our correspondent in Lagos on Tuesday.

According to him, to reduce the continuous rise in the price of poultry produce, the government should intervene by providing grains to farmers as it did before.

“The way out in ensuring a fall in the cost of poultry produce is by granting local poultry farmers access to grains for feed .

“If the Central Bank of Nigeria’s intervention can be reintroduced into the sector it will go a long way to assist poultry farmers to access grains.

“The first intervention done in the year 2020 really cushioned the effect on the poultry sector as the grains are distributed evenly.

“However, the second intervention did not get to poultry farmers, hence, the high cost of grains and subsequent rise in the cost of poultry produce,” he said.

Egbebe also said that the government should address insecurity which had reduced the cultivation of grain by crop farmers.

”Insecurity issue also is another malaise to access and increase on cost of grains in the market.

“We do not want to sound like a broken record but we want the issue of banditry to be addressed so that farmers can grow more grains.

“Crop farmers do not produce enough grains as they used to because of the fear of bandits.

“If security issues are tackled, it will aid availability of grains and reduction of cost.

“We are in another planting season, so we need something to be done soon to get reduction in price of grain,” he stressed.

Another poultry farmer, Alhaji Shittu Asimi, said that appropriate distribution of grains from government’s intervention would help cushion the high costs of feed meal production.

Asimi said that recently the Federal Government decided to release 400,000 tons of maize from the national reserves.

“If these grains can get to the poultry farmers directly without interference like they did three years ago, it will help reduce the cost of feed meal.

“When it was distributed last time, some of us benefitted because it was distributed through the Ministry of Agriculture.

“It is better the government gives the grains to the farmers directly through the ministry,” he said.

The farmer also called for the lifting of the ban on importation of maize and Soya which are major components of bird feed.

He noted that the government should allow the importation of grains to reduce the cost of feed meal in the poultry sector.

“What we are producing locally is not enough because we consume a lot of maize. Human consumption, poultry and breweries use a lot of maize.

“If the government can allow importation of maize, it will be more available, in circulation and the price will drop.

“If we are able to get feed meal ingredients at reasonable rates the cost of production will drop and subsequently the price of the produce,” he said.

Asimi further said that the call for intervention included Soya beans because farmers used a lot of the component in the production of bird feed.

He added that the price of Soyabeans would drop with those measures taken and the farmers too would smile.