The Nkaliki Hatchery in Ebonyi State has resumed full poultry production, with both layers and broilers now being raised and sold to the public.
The revival, which marks a return of commercial activity to the once-booming facility, has seen members of the public, businesses and private buyers trooping to Nkaliki to purchase eggs and birds.
For a facility that once produced thousands of birds and eggs before its decline, the return of chickens and eggs to Nkaliki is being described as a major boost to food security and the local economy.
In a statement signed by the Special Assistant to Governor Nwifuru on New Media, Hon. Leo Oketa, the old Nkaliki Hatchery was an important source of food, employment and commercial activity across Ebonyi and beyond. Its reactivation, therefore, represents more than poultry production as it is the reopening of an agricultural value chain.
‘The real test is what happens inside the structures. Today, production has returned and Nkaliki is working again,’ a government statement said.
Oketa said the reactivation aligns with Governor Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru’s ‘People’s Charter of Needs’ agenda of using practical farming to increase food production, create jobs and strengthen livelihoods.
‘The reactivation of Nkaliki Poultry Farm was specifically identified in the Governor’s agricultural agenda,’ the statement noted.
Officials disclosed that a feed mill is also under construction at the facility to strengthen the value chain and make poultry feeds available to farmers within and beyond Ebonyi State.
‘We may not yet be where we intend to be, but the important thing is that the revival has started. The structures are back. The birds are back. Production is back. And more is coming,’ the statement added.
The government urged Ebonyians and the general public to visit the Nkaliki Hatchery to buy directly from the farm.