Poultry sector receives $2m from United States Department of Agriculture

The United States Department of Agriculture has invested about $2 million in the poultry sector through the just ended Ghana Poultry Project.

According to Technical Lead of the project, Raymond Denteh, the investment was given out as grant to modernise the poultry industry.

Speaking on the sidelines of Ghana Chicken Regulatory Forum, he disclosed that the funds were used to improve egg processing, digitise trading along the value chain, amongst others.

“We have trained close to 10,000 farmers and various actors in the value chain to increase their efficiency. We also had demonstrations to show farmers that they can raise their broilers in six weeks. We have tested modules to prove that Ghana is capable of exporting,” he told Joy Business in an interview.

“We had about $2 million in grants to test various models like processing eggs. We have people concentrating on online sales. We also help government agencies develop a number of standards and protocols. We’re currently working with the Veterinary Services Directorate on the animal health bill,” he said.

Speaking to Joy Business, Standards Officer at the Ghana Standards Authority, Ali Issah, indicated that regulatory bodies are there to help, hence people should not be reluctant to reach out to them.

“GSA has standards for the poultry value chain. We have standards for eggshells, poultry hatchery, dressed poultry, poultry feed, chicken sausages and quite a number of them. It is important that players or actors have standards to adhere to. So, GSA is there to help them adhere to requirements because most people overlook standards,” he said.

The Ghana Chicken Regulatory Forum organised by USDA’s Ghana Poultry Project seeks to educate industry players on regulatory activities.