One of the foremost and largest poultry farms in the country, Nkaliki Hatchery located in Ebonyi state is now a shadow of itself after 43 years of its establishment. Th e Nkaliki Hatchery complex regarded as largest in South east was established in 1979 by Jim Nwobodo administration and covers about 36 hectares of land with modern facilities. Th e automated poultry farm is located at Hatchery road, Nkaliki in Abakaliki Local Government Area of the state.
It was producing 5,000 birds per day before its present sorry state. It has its own feed mill, slaughter house which is fully automated and most sophisticated in the country, nine pens for layers, parent stock of both male and female pullets. Th e hatchery has six sets and each set has 16, 800 birds. It was the envy of all and provided employments for thepeople directly and indirectly. With more than 3,000 eggs produced daily by the hatchery, villagers, host community and others were opportune to buy and sell chickens in large quantities.
People from the neighbouring Abia, Enugu, Imo, Cross River, Benue and Anambra were also buying the birds and eggs in large quantities. Th e hatchery galvanized economic activities in the state. Th e egg s and chickens market expanded and stirred increased demand by both local consumers and many who come from outside the state during its good time. But today, the largest south east poultry farm is now a shadow of itself begging for revival with every activity in the hatchery paralyzed while the pens and all other modern facilities have become dilapidated. Some workers of the farm have left the hatchery following nonpayment of their salaries and the deplorable state of the farm. Th e hatchery had better days between 1999 and 2007 under former governor of the state, Senator Sam Egwu. It was during the administration that modern facilities were constructed in the farm which increased production of livestock and eggs and placed the hatchery on enviable height. Presently, all the most of the facilities are dilapidated except the very few offi ces in the farm which were built by recently. Also, some of the operational vehicles have broken down. Th e hatchery was established in a very conducive environment. Th e farm however went into comatose during the administration of Chief Martin Elechi with every activity paralyzed. Th e government made lots of promises and eff orts to revive it but to no avail. Speaking to Blueprint, Emmanuel Uroh who worked in the farm said it was diffi cult for him to take the decision because of the beautiful nature of the hatchery in terms of infrastructure and the environment. “Th is hatchery is a place anyone employed here cannot resist the employment. It has beautiful structures, equipment and environment. It was one of the best poultry farms in Nigeria. When I was employed here, I said this is where I will stay and get experience for my own farm because I had intension of having my own poultry farm. I also had the intension of studying livestock under Agriculture in the University. So, when I was employed here, I was so happy. But my happiness was cut short because the hatchery collapsed
