What holds us back: constraints among broiler producers in Ghana

Abstract

In Africa, Chicken has become one of the most important meats in terms of consumption of which Ghana is no exception. In spite of the high demand for chicken in Ghana, its producers have been constrained by a number of factors. Formulating policies to address these constraints would be very difficult without knowing their order or rank and respective levels of severity from the perspective of the farmers. One hundred and twenty five broiler producers in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana were surveyed using the multistage sampling method. The various constraints were ranked with the use of their mean values from a Likert scale. Among the various constraints, competition from imported chicken was the number one whiles theft in production which was the least and was not seen as a constraint by the farmers. When broadly categorized, it was observed that the issue of marketing factors was the foremost constraint of the farmers followed by financial and production.  The study therefore recommends government to reduce drastically the importation of chicken, create market for producers and subsidize poultry inputs in order to boost broiler production in Ghana.