The Poultry Industry in Nigeria Faces a Deepening Crisis
Nigeria’s poultry industry is experiencing a severe production crisis, raising significant concerns about food security, protein supply, and the risk of malnutrition. Shortages of day-old chicks, delayed deliveries, rising feed costs, and weak hatchery output are forcing many farmers to scale down or shut down their operations. This crisis has left many farmers like Azeez Opadola in Ibadan, Oyo State, grappling with financial losses and uncertainty.
Opadola recalls how he used to wake up each morning to the sight of empty poultry pens. His farm, once bustling with activity, now stands quiet. He had ordered thousands of day-old chicks for the last Ramadan period, but the delivery kept getting postponed. The bags of starter feed he bought ahead of time remained untouched, while the brooders he prepared for the birds stood idle.
“I was expecting over 5,000 birds, but up till now, I have not received any. I even bought two tonnes of starter feed in preparation for the birds before the last Ramadan period. But because the birds never arrived, I had to give the feed to another farmer who was already in production,” he said.
For Opadola, whose business revolves around tending and raising fragile day-old chicks into healthy point-of-lay birds for egg producers, the silence on the farm now feels unnatural, almost haunting.
The Shift from Stability to Crisis
Things appeared stable when Opadola left his job at a poultry company, where he managed over one million laying birds, to focus fully on his family’s poultry business in 2023. According to him, his role was to raise birds from the day-old stage to the point-of-lay stage between 12 and 16 weeks. By then, the birds would have received all necessary medications and vaccinations, leaving layer farmers to simply place them in cages for egg production.
However, unknown to him, a crisis was quietly building within the industry. “Not long ago, poultry farming still offered hope. Around November 2023, day-old chicks sold for about N640 each, and despite Nigeria’s worsening economic conditions following the naira redesign crisis and spiralling inflation, production remained manageable,” he said.
Rising Feed Costs and Economic Strain
The warning signs became noticeable shortly after the industry began recovering from the economic disruptions of 2023. According to Opadola, the prices of essential poultry feed ingredients such as maize, soybeans, and wheat offal skyrocketed, making production increasingly expensive.
He noted that farmers who once bought feed comfortably suddenly found themselves struggling under crushing production costs. “For instance, a bag of pre-layer feed rose to between N25,000 and N27,000, while grower feed climbed above N22,000. Even farmers who produced their own feed by milling raw ingredients could no longer cope. As the situation worsened, poultry farms across Ibadan, Abeokuta, and parts of Lagos quietly began scaling down operations, while others shut their doors completely,” Opadola said.
Middlemen and the Black Market
As the crisis deepened in late 2024, the price of a day-old chick rose from about N1,200 to nearly N1,600 within a few months, causing desperate farmers to start relying on middlemen and agents who controlled access to hatcheries.
By early 2025, the shortage had pushed many farmers to the brink, and what previously took two weeks for delivery suddenly stretched into months. Saturday PUNCH gathered that as scarcity intensified, opportunists moved into the market. Agents allegedly began buying large chick allocations directly from hatcheries and reselling them to desperate farmers at outrageous prices.
“Many of us had to start dealing with agents. Some hatcheries demanded 100 per cent payment upfront, yet farmers would still wait four months before receiving chicks. If you booked in August, you might not get chicks until January. At that point, agents began exploiting the crisis. They would buy allocations cheaply and resell them to desperate farmers at inflated prices. Different hatcheries also had different pricing structures depending on the breed.”
Impact on Farmers and Consumers
For Sodiq Okeyode, another poultry farmer in the Ashipa area of Ogun State, the crisis has turned poultry production into a painful gamble. Like many others, he believes middlemen have hijacked the supply chain, leaving genuine farmers without direct access to hatcheries.
According to him, some buyers purchase large quantities directly from hatcheries and resell them at inflated prices, leaving real farmers stranded. “Things are no longer as easy as they used to be. Before now, once you made payment, you could receive your chicks within two weeks. But currently, it is very difficult for farmers to get day-old chicks directly from hatcheries.”
Structural Challenges and Economic Factors
A technical director at a hatchery in Oyo State, Mr Kunle Ogunwomoju, blamed the lingering scarcity and rising cost of day-old chicks on the economic disruptions triggered by the 2023 cash crunch, fuel subsidy removal, and foreign exchange reforms. According to him, the policies severely destabilised poultry production nationwide.
He explained that the cashless policy introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria disrupted supply chains across the poultry sector, while the removal of fuel subsidy and the unification of the foreign exchange market increased production costs and affected the importation of grandparent stock used by hatcheries.
Government and Stakeholder Responses
Despite the challenges, stakeholders are calling for urgent interventions. The Ogun State Chairman of the Poultry Association of Nigeria, Yinka Lawal, identified insecurity in farming communities, transportation challenges, reduced hatchery capacity, and rising demand for poultry products as major contributors to the widening gap between supply and demand for chicks nationwide.
He called for affordable access to feed ingredients, foreign exchange support for critical inputs, low-interest financing, improved electricity supply, and targeted recovery support for poultry businesses.
The Broader Implications
Poultry remains a critical sector for Nigeria’s food security, supplying high-quality protein through meat and eggs while creating employment opportunities for millions of Nigerians. However, the current crisis threatens to push this essential source of protein beyond the reach of ordinary citizens.
As the industry struggles to recover, the need for coordinated efforts between government agencies and stakeholders becomes more pressing. Only through sustained support and strategic interventions can the poultry sector regain its stability and continue to meet the nutritional needs of the Nigerian population.
