 "Punjab poultry farmers hit by high feed costs")
Poultry farmers in Punjab and Haryana are grappling with problems of high feed cost and low returns on eggs. A 15-20 per cent increase in the feed cost followed by a drop in egg price by one rupee per egg in the last few weeks has squeezed poultry farmers' profit margins.
Poultry feed has ingredients such as maize, bajra, soya extracts, groundnut extracts, rapeseed extracts, deoiled rice bran, rice bran and small amounts of certain other components. The prices of all these commodities have gone through the roof, making the cost of feed unviable for poultry farmers.
In the poultry business, production cannot be increased or reduced to suit changing market conditions. So, poultry farmers are producing at a cost that is unviable and selling at a price that is lower than cost.
Mehta, who is the national vice-president of the National Egg Coordination Committee, said owing to the mushrooming of poultry farms in the region in the past few years, supply has outgrown demand. Farmers were, therefore, not able to pass on the increase in cost to wholesalers.
Small and marginal farmers who cannot sustain losses for long periods were planning to sell their birds to cut capacity, he said. There are buyers for poultry in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
Devender Ahlawat, general secretary of the Haryana Poultry Farmers' Association, said it was not easy to reduce the number of birds, as it would take a minimum of six months to rear a bird for egg production, if demand were to revive. "Eggs are a perishable item and cannot be stored for many days. We do not have space to store the commodity." he added.
Poultry feed has ingredients such as maize, bajra, soya extracts, groundnut extracts, rapeseed extracts, deoiled rice bran, rice bran and small amounts of certain other components. The prices of all these commodities have gone through the roof, making the cost of feed unviable for poultry farmers.
In the poultry business, production cannot be increased or reduced to suit changing market conditions. So, poultry farmers are producing at a cost that is unviable and selling at a price that is lower than cost.
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Sandeep Mehta, who owns a poultry farm in Pehar Kalan village in Rajpura (Punjab), said by selling eggs at Rs 2.5 per piece, he was incurring a loss of Rs 0.5 on each egg. So, a farmer having a production capacity of 100,000 eggs is losing Rs 15 lakh per month. Forward contracts for commodities at the commodity exchanges led to speculation in the prices of commodities, he added, leading to a sharp increase in their prices.
Mehta, who is the national vice-president of the National Egg Coordination Committee, said owing to the mushrooming of poultry farms in the region in the past few years, supply has outgrown demand. Farmers were, therefore, not able to pass on the increase in cost to wholesalers.
Small and marginal farmers who cannot sustain losses for long periods were planning to sell their birds to cut capacity, he said. There are buyers for poultry in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
Devender Ahlawat, general secretary of the Haryana Poultry Farmers' Association, said it was not easy to reduce the number of birds, as it would take a minimum of six months to rear a bird for egg production, if demand were to revive. "Eggs are a perishable item and cannot be stored for many days. We do not have space to store the commodity." he added.