Poultry farmers losing out to high costs, low product rates

• 28 Dec, 2018
• India

SHOPIAN: Poultry farmers in the industrial estate of Lasipora in southern Kashmir’s Pulwama district are up in arms against government apathy. With hundreds of workers left jobless, they say, due to the attitude of the authorities, the farmers are now demanding fixed market rate for their product and lower rates of feed and hatch.
As many as 150 poultry farmers were forced to close their outlets after a decline in market rates for poultry coupled with higher rates of feed and hatch, which they bring from Haryana.
A poultry farmer told Kashmir Reader that they buy a new hatch for Rs 50 a chicken which, after months of feeding and investment, fetches them Rs 100.
“We suffered heavy losses due to the higher rates of feed and hatch but lower rates of our product in local markets,” Arshid Ahmad Sheikh, an owner of one of the farms at Lasipora, said.
A group of poultry farmers told Kashmir Reader that no government department owns them and there were no fixed market rates.
“Some people started their hatch units after a heavy investment but they too have closed due to the uncaring attitude of the government. The non-local hatch costs us more and fetches us nothing. The rates of poultry feed are touching the skies and forcing us to close our units, that too after facing heavy losses,” one of the farmers said.
The poultry farmers also said that the government has not given them any Mandi where they can sell their products at fixed rates. “We buy a hatch at Rs 50 and feed the chickens with costly feed, but then 15 percent of the hatch dies within three months – tell me, doesn’t it result in our losses?” questioned Irshad Ahmad, president of the All Jammu and Kashmir Poultry Farmers Association, adding that the poultry industry is running in the air since there is no regulatory authority.
“No initiative was taken by the government to uplift this sector, but at the end, the Food Department tells us to sell our product at lower rates.”
Farmers said that the abandoned sector has not only resulted in the closure of poultry units but also has left hundreds of workers and unit holders jobless. They said that the government should provide assistance to hatchery owners who had to close due to the losses. “There should be controlled rates, both for products like feed, and hatch, which we buy from the market, and for the products which we sell in the market,” another poultry farmer said.
Joint Director Poultry cum LPP Dr. Riyaz Ahmad couldn’t be reached despite repeated tries to his office phone line.
The industrial estate of Lasipora was once famous for producing a fresh stock of poultry, and the unit holders were distributing chicken throughout the valley.
Experts said that the local stock was considered fresher and as being of better quality when compared to poultry products bought from units outside the valley.

Source: https://kashmirreader.com/2018/12/28/poultry-farmers-losing-out-to-high-costs-low-product-rates/