Dormaa-Ahenkro (B/A) Oct. 3, GNA - Poultry farmers in Brong-Ahafo have been advised to harmonize their resources to ensure price uniformity of their products.

The Regional Minister, Mr. Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo, who gave the advice at Dormaa-Ahenkro, explained that uniformity in price would help off-set imbalances in trading and excessive exploitation of consumers by middle people.

He was delivering the keynote address at a meeting of poultry farmers at Dormaa-Ahenkro designed to take stock of the past year and strategies for the present and the future. Mr. Nyamekye-Marfo acknowledged the important role poultry farmers played in the over -all socio-economic development of the country, saying: "apart from providing for the protein requirement of consumers, they also give employment to many Ghanaians both in the production and marketing sectors".

He said the government was committed to providing the necessary interventions to sustain and improve the industry. The Regional Minister however implored the apparent individualism among poultry farmers whom he said depended on trial and error tactics to solve problems confronting them.

Mr. Nyamekye-Marfo appealed to the national executive of the Poultry Farmers Association to roll out pragmatic membership drive to attract all poultry farmers in the region into their fold. The National Chairman of the association, Kwadwo Asante, noted that the poultry industry required serious government interventions to enable it to meet market demand.

He noted that the current high cost of production in the industry had made it difficult for local poultry products to compete favourably with imported ones.

Mr. Asante appealed to the government to provide security for local products to enhance employment and business.

Mr.Stephen Owusu, Regional chairman, listed some basic problems confronting the farmers as lack of day old chicks due to insufficient hatcheries and fish meal during the lean season and general lack of government control over the activities of members.

A communiqu=E9 issued at the end of the meeting, commended the government for subsidizing fertilizer for farmers and appealed for same to be extended to products used in the poultry industry. It called on financial institutions to make their interest rates affordable to farmers. The communiqu=E9 further called on the government to place a ban on the importation of chicken products and appealed to the Education Ministry to secure the poultry component of the school feeding programme to local farmers.