Poultry sector has been relegated to a habitual activity which oscillates between unpredictable loss and profit. The entrepreneurs who have invested into the Sector are clueless about the potential and after investing a fortune in terms of land and buildings mostly end up in losses. An analysis of the human resource involved in the Sector specifies that an entrepreneur continues with such a capricious farming activity for a maximum of four to five years. The farmer after encountering losses rents out or sells off the farm to another naive person who meets the same fate and the vicious circle continues.
The horizontal expansion without corresponding growth in its verticals has contributed in the present fallout of the Sector. Dependence on day old chick and poultry feed imports has led to the situation we are presently in. The quality is not assured as are not the rates.
The dealership peril has eaten up the remaining spirits to the extent that the farmers most of the times sell the flock on loss nonetheless the consumers get it at an exorbitant price. The difference in rates from the farm to the consumer varies between 30 to 40 per cent. Another dimension has been added by mafia by virtue of claiming toll tax exemption on import of live marketable birds from outside the State. In order to save the local farmer by offering a price advantage, due to high production costs, the Government of the time had decided to levy a toll tax of Rs. 9 per kilo of live bird being imported into the State. The farmer friendly decision was followed by issuance of an SRO from the Finance Department indicating exemption of toll tax on imports of live broilers meant for dressing units being registered with Industries Department. This opened up a Pandora box and an opportunity for the parasites of the society who established dummy dressing units to claim exemption of toll tax on live broiler imports. The assessment of these dummy plants went beyond 36000 Metric Tons per year (approximately two crores and fifty lakh birds) for the Valley. As per the reports, whole of the commodity is being traded as live without being processed which smashes down the market much to the disadvantage of the local farmers besides incurring a huge loss to the Government exchequer.
As if such a menace was not sufficient to discourage local entrepreneurship, another hazard in terms of clandestine import of dressed chicken under the guise of fish came into being. Without being sure of the source, conditions and method of slaughter, these birds find their way, smuggled in fish boxes packed with ice, directly to most of the fast food kiosks, restaurants and retail counters.
The retail rate structure is being notified by the Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Department, to the advantage of dealers, without taking into consideration the production cost of the live broilers. Ironically, wholesale rate or farm rate is not being notified at all.
Another blockade for achieving self-sufficiency in poultry production has been non-inclusion of poultry farming as a viable industrial activity for anonymous reasons with the result that the banking sector and financial institutions have been reluctant to finance the sector and insurance companies do not come forward to cover the birds against calamities.
Execution of the Policy by the Government with regard to the poultry development of the State shall bring a paradigm shift in the Sector. The farming community is hopeful that an organization within the ambit of Animal Husbandry Department shall be dedicated exclusively for implementation of the Policy. The organization shall work under a time bound manner to achieve the desired results with a prime objective of creating and securing employment avenues by accrual of all facets of development under one roof including counseling and skill development of prospective entrepreneurs, framing of project proposals, tracking the growth of different sub-sectors, technical and healthcare support, laboratory backup, ambulatory services for site inspections, etc. This shall go a long way in putting a halt to the flight of capital worth Rs. 900 crores per annum and shall be influential in changing our State from consumption to a production one.
The proposed J & K State Poultry Development Board shall have to take control of the rate structure of the poultry products and introduce the concept of dynamic pricing mechanism which shall enable farmers to optimize their pricing based on real time inputs, as opposed to setting a price over a long term and either pricing too low and giving up margin needlessly or charging too much and losing sales. It also ensures that the consumers who value a product the most have the opportunity to purchase it. The concept of establishment of Poultry Mandis shall further the objective of this model.
Capacity building in terms of entrepreneurship development of prospective entrepreneurs is another area which the Board shall have to take up in its sleeves. The approach of most of the present day farmers towards the rearing of poultry is a lackadaisical one due to their obliviousness and the technical norms are being flouted resulting in escalation of morbidity and mortalities. Erratic use of antibiotics at the farm level without proper recommendations following the disease outbreaks adds public health dimension to it by way of antimicrobial resistance. The entrepreneurs need to be educated about the menace and strict guidelines issued in this regard, defiance of which shall cost de-registration of the enterprise.
In order to decrease the dependence on imports of poultry feed, the Board shall facilitate transfer of technology up to the farm level and the farmer shall be encouraged to manufacture its feed for its own flock. This shall ensure quality input as per the requirement of the flock and increase in profitability of the enterprise and shall have a spillover effect on agriculture as the demand for ingredients like maize and soybean will intensify.
Till date there has not been a serious effort for establishment of layer farms in the State which has resulted in an exponential increase in the flight of capital on account of table egg imports. Paradoxically, the table eggs which we receive from outside take one month’s time to reach the consumer here in the Valley from the time it is laid and these can never qualify to be graded as fresh. A time limit of five years has been fixed in the Policy Document to bridge the gap.
Establishment of parent stock farms integrated with hatcheries has been another hallmark of the Poultry Policy 2018. It is an established fact that the parent stock birds belong to the alpine climate which our State is bestowed with. These breeds shall thrive well under our geo-climatic settings and shall be expected to produce stress free and hatchery fresh day old chicks for placement which otherwise we import from out of the State resulting in receipt of fatigued and stressed chicks.
The recurring theme in the whole policy document is to create islands of excellence in the short term and expand their ambit and culture in the longer term. The Policy envisages a pro-active and aggressive approach for import substitution wherever it is possible and feels this is the time for intervention across all the facets of the poultry industry. A target of zero imports in marketable birds, day old chicks and feed has been set within the next five years.
The author is a practicing Veterinarian
gilanismaltaf@gmail.com