The Minister for Food and Agriculture, Eric Opoku, has raised alarm over the behaviour of some beneficiaries of the government’s “Nkoko Nkitinkiti” poultry initiative, which he observed defeats the purpose of the programme.
He disclosed that some households have resorted to consuming the birds distributed to them for rearing purposes.
“Now the difficulty we have with some of the regions, especially in the Eastern Region, some of the farmers who benefited called me and said our birds are ready, but we are not getting buyers, so we spoke to some of the processors and have to move cars from Accra to some of the regions to buy the birds.
“There are also stories that we can also share; some also decided to kill and eat all. In fact, there were even sending me videos that, Honourable, we are eating everything. But this is not meant for immediate consumption; we just wanted people to rear them, sell and reinvest,” the minister stated.
Mr. Opoku expressed further concerns about the matter and emphasised that such an attitude undermines the main objective of the programme, which aims to promote sustainable poultry farming and to also help the beneficiaries make ends meet.
“We don’t encourage that because we wanted them to capitalise on this to earn something for their livelihood,” he remarked before Parliament’s Committee on Assurances on Thursday, July 9, 2026.
