The chairman of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) Lagos State chapter, Godwin Egbebe, says the South-West must not be short-changed in distribution of grain intervention to poultry farmers across the country.

According to him, the distribution should be based on the volume of activities in various geopolitical zones of the country.

Mr Egbebe made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Lagos.

He said one of the ways to address the challenges facing the poultry sector was to distribute grain intervention based on the scale of operations in each zone.

“The CBN intervention has actually helped but we still have issues as regards the distribution of grains according to the needs of each zone.

“The South West is the hub of poultry activities in Nigeria as over 70 per cent of poultry activities take place in the South West zone of the country.

“So, in the distribution of any grain intervention to farmers, the South West ought to get more quantity because of the volume of poultry activities in the zone.

“The national body of PAN has not been doing much as regards this issue, that is why the South-West zone of the association has appealed to the CBN for intervention, which they did and it helped.

“However, and unfortunately, there are some people that are trying to undermine what we have done by saying the CBN had to go through the national body in order to assist the poultry farmers.’’

Mr Egbebe said a grain intervention of 10,000 tonnes meant for distribution in the South-West has been withdrawn by the CBN, a situation which they believe will not be beneficial to the sector.

He noted that before now, the distribution that was made at the national level was not well accounted for, adding that this was unlike the ones done in the South-West.

“We just got a letter that the 10,000 tonnes of grains that was allocated to the South-West has been withdrawn by the CBN and would be rerouted through the national body, but we have not been given any reason for the withdrawal.

“Our members in the South-West have started making payments for the grains before we heard that it has been withdrawn from us.

“We do not think this rerouting will benefit the South-West zone because they do not know how to distribute the grains in such a way that would be beneficial to us,” the PAN chairman said.