On Monday, October 31, 2022, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, the minister of food and agriculture, began his regional working tour.After a series of successful working tours to various parts of the nation earlier this year, the second leg has just been completed.The minister will have the chance to speak with farmers, input merchants, and directors during the visit.Dr.

0

Afriyie Akoto, who stressed that the government was prepared to tackle the bird flu outbreaks, calmed the anxieties of poultry producers during his first port of visit in the Western North Region.According to him, the disease affected farmers in Western, Western North, Central, Volta and Oti Regions.He disclosed that a total of 280 farms have so far been affected by the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) with 997,743 birds destroyed.

1

He also stated that the government had paid some GHS15,630,913.33 as compensation to affected poultry farmers.To control the disease, Dr Afriyie Akoto said the government had approved an amount of GHS43,984,017.70, of which GHS20,000,000.00 had already been released.He further noted that approval has also been given to recruit some 1,100 veterinary officers, stating that, 550 out of the 1,100, have already been recruited and posted.

2

He said the remaining 550 were yet to be recruited and posted within a period of two years.In this vein, the Minister advised farmers against accepting birds or eggs from other farms onto their farms.He also admonished the poultry farmers to thoroughly wash down with soap and water immediately after handling birds, urging them to confine their birds from other birds.

3

He called on the farmers to regularly wash poultry equipment, bury or burn dead birds, and keep waste away from the farmhouse.For his part, the Director of the Veterinary Services Directorate (VSD) at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Dr Patrick Abakeh, cautioned that compensations for bird flu-infested farms will not be paid to farmers who fail to register with the VSD.

4

He, therefore, called on the farmers to register their farms with the VSD. This, he explained, will give the authorities the knowledge on the number of farmers and quantity of birds affected.Additionally, he asked the farmers to acquire certification from the VSD to qualify them for compensation following the bird flu outbreaks.From Western North, the Minister will head to the Western, Central, Oti and Volta regions.

5