Srinagar, Nov 23: The Valley poultry farmers today lambasted the government for what they said “its undue interference in fixing the price of the poultry.”
 The stakeholders under the banner of Kashmir Valley Poultry Farmers Association said that while the government was showing much alacrity in fixing the prices of the poultry without taking into consideration the real stakeholders or seeking expert opinion from the Animal Husbandry Department, “it shows no concern for our problems.”
 Association president and senior executive member Federation Chamber of Industries Kashmir G. M. Bhat told Greater Kashmir that it was unfortunate that the poultry sector had neither been granted the “industrial” status nor brought under “agriculture”.
 He said by its actions the government was “ruining the poultry industry”.
 “It is strange that while the government is attracting unemployed youth to this sector, it is not granting it the industry or agriculture status,” Bhat said, adding that not conferring such a status to the poultry had been keeping this sector of the advantages which otherwise it should be entitled to.
 Bhat accused the government (read Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Department) of unilaterally fixing unreasonable rates for the poultry. “Most of the times the rates the CAPD fixes fell below the production costs we incur. This way the CAPD is ruining this sector, which otherwise needs encourage from the government.
 Bhat suggested that either the rates be left to the demand-supply factor, as is the case in many states, or the government should constitute a committee comprising poultry farmers, experts from Animal Husbandry and officials from district Administration for fixing the prices.
 Bhat said: “If the government continues with its indifference and apathy towards this sector and CAPD goes unilaterally fixing rates, this industry will die its own death.”
 Bhat said over 10 per cent of the people in the Valley have been directly or indirectly associated with different segments of poultry playing different roles like hatchery men, feed manufacturers, chemists, farmers, wholesaler dealers and retailers etc.
 “Presently a huge chunk of qualified graduates in the Valley are involved in poultry sector. They adopted it as a source of their livings.”
 He said a sector of such a magnitude cannot be ignored by the government. “This is the sector which could hold key to the unemployed provided government plays its role by providing for infrastructure,” he said.
 He said: “Government has brought this industry in ‘negative’ list. Neither any financial institution is financing poultry farming, nor any company is doing insurance. Plus the government is not giving any subsidy to the poultry farmers and above all industries department is not registering poultry farming because it has neither industrial nor agriculture status.”
 He said the sector depends on four pillars namely Hatcheries, Feed industry, Poultry farming and Marketing. “In all the segments there is deficiency of infrastructure,” he said.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 23 Nov 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 23 Nov 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 24 Nov 2010 00:00:00 IST