Government will today [Wednesday] begin compensating some farmers whose poultry farms were destroyed by the Ministry of Agriculture during the outbreak of the bird flu.
A ceremony to mark this first release will be held in Accra.
Officials from the Ministry are expected to give a detailed account of government`s moves to curb a spread of the virus.
In May 2015, an outbreak of the Bird flu in the country saw about forty thousand birds destroyed.
Speaking to Citi News, the Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Hannah Bissiw outlined the criteria that will be used to pay the farmers.
“When a farm is affected and they do the destruction, we only pay for the birds that we destroy not what you report that have died so whatever is destroyed the district assembly comes in to witness, we give a certificate of destruction and then the crates of eggs that were destroyed, structures that were destroyed and also feed that may be destroyed. So we get the data then we use the market value of the product at the time to compensate farmers. Government takes 90 percent and the farmer takes 10 percent of the cost,” she explained.
She also reiterated that the ban on the movement of live birds and poultry products still remains in force but was quick to add that there is no ban on consumption of poultry products.
“We have actually lifted the ban on the restricted movement of birds from Greater Accra. We are looking on, should there be any outbreak anywhere we are going to do the same so that it doesn’
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t spread as it did in Greater Accra,” she said.
