The poultry sector of Ghana: regime transitions and its implications for poultry health and management

Ben Enyetornye, Binu T. Velayudhan, Nicole Lynn Gottdenker

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

SUMMARY: Poultry production in many African countries is prone to national and international political, economic, and epidemiologic shocks and regime changes, making the sector evolve rapidly through various phases. Drivers of these transitional phases include policy change, which could cause either negative or positive sector reforms, disease outbreaks, developmental projects, and many others. Most poultry development projects in Africa are economically and socially unsustainable. Accordingly, the poultry sector of Ghana has also gone through transformational phases. However, these phases are not well documented making it quite difficult to follow and comprehend the current challenges facing poultry production in Ghana. In this paper, we detail historical and contemporary regimen shifts in the poultry sector of Ghana and their implications for poultry health. We identify phases of high poultry production after Ghana’s independence from colonial rule in 1957 followed by a sharp decline in production, due to economic reform programmes in early 1983. Poultry production continued to dwindle due to other factors such as viral disease outbreaks and frozen chicken imports. The COVID-19 pandemic is also identified as a major regime shift in Ghana’s poultry sector due to acute shortage of primary inputs. The local production of a thermostable Newcastle disease vaccine coupled with the establishment of two veterinary schools and a veterinary nursing school locally are major milestones that, if well supported organisationally, financially, and politically, will support the poultry sector of Ghana. In short, regime transitions have had an appreciable impact on poultry production in Ghana. We propose cross-country stakeholder engagement to help develop and implement a resilient long-term poultry production plan that will serve as a guide for successive governments, thereby cushioning the poultry sector.

Original languageEnglish
JournalWorld's Poultry Science Journal
DOIs
Publication statusAccepted/In press - 2024

Keywords

  • frozen chicken
  • Ghana
  • Poultry
  • poultry diseases
  • transitions

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