To boost the government’s flagship Feed Ghana Program, the European Union (EU) has sent 150,000 fully vaccinated poultry birds. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) are implementing an intervention, carried out through the EU-funded Food Security Response Project in Northern Ghana, to reduce the nation’s excessive reliance on imported chicken.
The program is expected to serve approximately 15,000 rural households and aid about 3,000 farmers in six districts in the Savannah, Upper East, and North East regions. Along with the birds, farmers are also provided with access to poultry, training, and necessary veterinary medications to produce.
Currently, Ghana imports between $300 million and $400 million worth of poultry each year. By 2029, the government hopes to achieve complete poultry production self-sufficiency under the Feed Ghana Programme.
According to Silvia Severi, Head of Cooperation at the EU Embassy in Ghana, the project demonstrates the EU’s dedication to bolstering the nation’s food and agriculture sectors.
“The EU remains committed. Whether it is through this project, our €132 million EU-Ghana Agriculture Programme, or our broader Team Europe initiatives, we are here to build resilience together,” she stated.
“Our aim is to make poultry more affordable to Ghanaians while providing sustainable income opportunities, especially for rural households,” he noted. “Empowering farmers to produce their own eggs and chicken promotes sustainability and builds resilience,” she said.