GNA-Poultry farmers in the Western Region have expressed worry over the delay by the government to pay compensations due them after their birds and other farm produce were destroyed because of the outbreak of bird flu last year. Ambassador Kofi Dossah, Chairman of the Effia-Kwesimintsim Poultry Farmers Association, speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview, said the government promised to compensate farmers whose birds, eggs and feeds were destroyed in response to the outbreak of bird flu last year with an amount of about GHC789,565 but was yet to do so. He said following the outbreak of the flu last year, poultry farmers voluntarily asked for their birds, eggs, and feed to be examined by the Regional veterinary office to mitigate the spread of the disease. He noted that those that turned out positive after the examination were destroyed by an Emergency Response Team of officials from the Regional Disaster Management Organisation, Regional Department of Agriculture, Regional Veterinary Officer, Fire Service and led by the Western Regional Minister. According to Ambassador Dossah, more than 25,776 birds, 1,286 crates of eggs and 161 bags of feed were destroyed during the exercise. He said the Response Team took stock of the number of poultry farm produce that were destroyed for the affected farmers to be compensated accordingly. He explained that 'At the time of the destruction, a bag of feed was selling at GHS157 but the government offered to pay GHS80 and a crate of egg at the time was being sold for GHC20, but the government offered to pay GHC10, while a bird was going for GHC40 during that time but again government offered to pay GHC30. In all, the government promised to compensate us with about GHC789,565'. He said all efforts by the farmers to get their compensation from the government had proven futile. Ambassador Dossah added that government's inability to honour its promise could result in public health problems, saying; 'If government does not pay what they are supposed to give us, we may not voluntarily ask for our birds, eggs and feeds to be destroyed in the event of another outbreak of bird flu.' He said no farmer would willingly agree to be involved in such an exercise if the arrears are not paid saying, they would not want to lose the monies they had invested in their businesses. He therefore appealed to the government through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to initiate steps to honour its promise and pay compensations to them to help sustain their livelihoods. He said some of the farmers whose farms were destroyed were struggling to keep their businesses afloat and stressed the need for authorities to support them.

Source: Ghana News Agency