Centre warned of poultry crisis; broilers to face huge shortage
Prices of chicken will witness a rise as a huge shortage in broilers is likely. This will lead to very high prices, thus affecting consumers.
By Prabha Jagannathan, TNN |
NEW DELHI: There could be a Vidarbha-type situation brewing for a big chunk of the country’s poultry farmers. It means that prices of chicken will witness a rise as a huge shortage in broilers is likely. This will lead to very high prices, thus affecting consumers.
The small farmer, who did not have resources during the avian influenza outbreak crisis, will not be able to make any recoveries,” Poultry Federation of India sources said.
The federation is pushing for a Rs 1,450 crore-odd package to poultry farmers (including Rs 987 crore as grant and Rs 449 crore as soft loan), particularly to those without easy access to credit. This is to save them from disaster, as there is a possibility of bird flu recurrence in winter. It has also asked for the exemption of poultry farmers from IT payment in the next two years and wants vaccine to be made available to breeders to protect Pure Line and Grand Parent stocks.
If poultry farmers are not given this relief to boost the health of the country’s 90,000 farms immediately, the federation has warned, then the industry may slip down sharply from the fourth and the fifth positions in world egg and meat production respectively it currently occupies.
The federation told agriculture minister Sharad Pawar that relief measures announced by the government, including a reduction in the interest rate for poultry farmers, are yet to be implemented. The relief measures were available only to a small percentage of poultry farmers who had access to credit.
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Maize at reduced prices has not been released to poultry farmers although the relief package was announced several weeks ago. This has forced the farmers to delay plans to restart their operations. Ironically, Mr Pawar’s home state Maharashtra is the fulcrum of both the poultry industry and the bird flu outbreak that affected the industry countrywide. Broiler prices, which were at a level of RS 38-40/kg in February, tumbled to as low as Rs 1 per kg and even at that price, there were not enough buyers to lift ready stocks in the course of the bird flu outbreak.
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