Eric Opoku, the Minister for Food and Agriculture has revealed the Mahama government will launch the flagship ‘nkoko nkitinkiti’ in July.
According to Eric Opoku, the government will launch the pilot phase of its flagship poultry initiative next month in July.
The Mahama government’s nkoko nkitinkiti project goal is to reduce Ghana’s import dependence on poultry products, especially chicken and eggs.
The project also seeks to create sustainable employment opportunities for young people.
Speaking at the three-day AgriFair, Eric Opoku detailed, “Nkoko Nkitinkiti is just one of the three major programmes under the Feed Ghana initiative. We are in the process of procuring birds and battery cages for distribution to households.
But even before full procurement is complete, we’re launching a small-scale pilot next month in the north to assess how the programme performs at scale,” the Minister stated.
He further revealed that Twelve districts in the Northern Region have been selected for the pilot rollout.
“We’ve selected about 12 districts for this pilot phase, which will run for four months. Within two to three months, we plan to fully roll out the Nkoko Nkitinkiti programme nationwide,” he added.
The nkoko nkitinkiti project will benefit a projected 55,000 households nationwide boosting employment in the agricultural sector.
Former Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Dr Peter Otokunor in opposition revealed that, due to poor agriculture policies, the erstwhile Akufo-Addo government allowed the importation of eggs from China.
According to him, due to the high importation of eggs allowed by this government from China, the majority of Poultry Farmers have lost their home in the business.
He shared that due to the high importation, poultry feeds have become too expensive to afford so the majority of Poultry farmers are now leaving the business.
On the back of that, he emphasized why Ghanaians should embrace the NDC’s ‘nkoko nkitinkiti’ policy.
Dr Peter Otokunor mentioned that the policy will drive the poultry farming business into its lucrative nature and will be attractive to the youth to join.
He also added that, under the policy, the government will buy day-old chicks for Poultry Farmers to be able to rear and make means out of it.
