21 March 2008
Lagos — The Federal Government has paidN623 million as compensation topoultry farmers whose birdswere killed between 2006 and2008.
Director of Livestock and Pest Control in the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, Dr Junaid Maina, disclosed this yesterday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
Maina said that N175 million ofthe amount came from the Federal Government while the rest was fromthe World Bank.According to him, 2,733 farmers benefited from the payment.
He said that a total of 1,250,425 birdswere slaughtered, of which 755,929were infected by the "Highly Pathogenic A1 (HPA1) virus". He said that the government had fully upgraded the National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI) Vom,to sustain the fight against bird flu.
Maina said the ministry was intensifying efforts on the three-year (2006-2009) Nigeria Avian Influenza Emergency Control Prepare-dness and Response Project (AIECPRP). The project, he said, was aimed atpreventing further spread of the HPA1virus to the unaffected parts of the country. In his comments, FAO Representative, Helder Muteia said that in spite of the success recorded in controlling the disease in Nigeria, the H5N1 virusremained a global threat.
He said FAO would continue to collaborate with the government in the areas of surveillance, immediate control interventions, bio security, culling and the strengthening of veterinary services. Before the intervention of the World Bank, the Federal Government had paid N250 per bird ascompensation.
Meanwhile, Alhaji Kabir Ibrahim, the President, Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) has commended the efforts of Federal Government toward the promptpayment of the compensation. Ibrahim said that some of the affectedfarmers were now restocking theirfarms with the aim of going back tobusiness.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
