Asutsuare (Greater Accra) 24 June '99

The First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, on Wednesday commissioned an integrated poultry project at Asutsuare, in the Osudoku traditional area of Greater Accra region.

The facility was developed by Asutsuare Agriculture Holdings (AAH) with assistance from Gateway Farms and Commodities Limited and the UK-based Rexol Group.

It consists of five components and aims at producing high quality poultry products for the Ghanaian market and for export.

The poultry project includes a breeder farm hatchery estimated to hatch about 3.6 million eggs annually, a broiler farm that would produce about 1.3 million birds per year and a plant to process some 2.4 tons of broilers per year at 2,000 per hour. The plant would have cold storage units.

There would be a table egg layer farm that would produce more than 36,000 layers per annum each with annual egg production of 10.28 million.

Two feed mills would also be built with a capacity of five tons each that would produce 22,400 tons of compound poultry feed a year.

The owners say they also have plans to cultivate soyabeans and other related crops to feed the factory.

Already completed are five broiler sheds, two of which are in operation with a total capacity of 20,000 birds. The facility operates on an Israeli state-of-the-art technology with an automated feeding and water supply system.

Mr J. H. Owusu-Acheampong, Minister of Agriculture, recounted some problems facing the poultry industry, including high cost of production and high cost of credit from the banks and said the Ministry has instituted measures to improve the situation.

He urged the farmers to accept the reality of the liberalisation policy and brace up to meet the challenges.

Nana Konadu expressed the hope that the venture would improve the economic life of the local people.

Vice-President John Atta Mills urged the chiefs and people to give their maximum support for the success of the project.