The Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, has been reaching out to poultry farmers across the country, most especially, those who have 3,000 birds and above, to take insurance cover for their farms, as bird flu ravages farms. This move is coming as resentment over compensation by affected farmers is said to have prompted concealment by others. However, for many poultry farmers, buying insurance policy to cover their farms is another major burden as experiences of those, who once bought have not been encouraging. A former President, Poultry Farmers Association of Nigeria (PAN), Kabiru Ibrahim, said as obtainable with every aspect of agricultural production, there was some reticence in taking insurance cover.
“Most poultry farmers have shown apathy towards insurance because at one time or another, they feel they have not been properly compensated. So, the news has spread among them to make them reluctant to participate in the scheme”, he stated. Furthermore, the Chairman, Kano State Chapter of PAN, Alhaji Umar Kibiya, said the issue of poultry farmers’ reluctance to take insurance policy had been a major concern, which the association was currently trying to address. Kibiya added that the unwillingness on the part of the farmers had been attributed to either religious factors or cultural practices, saying that other matters relating to farmers’ failure to insure their poultry farms included their inability to pay the premium fee required by insurance companies and weak understanding of what the farmers stand to gain by engaging the insurance firms.
