Bird flu-hit poultry farmers on the path to recovery

Several poultry farmers in Guntur, Krishna, and Prakasam districts (Vijayawada zone) have begun to recover from the huge losses they suffered after bird flu scare hit the state with the production of eggs increasing to 65 lakh per day.

Before the crash of market between February 18 and July 31, farmers used to produce 70 lakh eggs a day. After the avian flu fears spread in the state, the egg production had fallen to 45-50 lakh per day.

P Siva Sankara Rao, executive member of National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC) and AP Poultry Federation, told Business Standard that the present price of an egg was Rs 1.36 as against 58 paise during the crisis and Rs 1.26 per egg before the slump.

The farmers of egg layers in the three districts who incurred Rs 40 crore loss due to the bird flu fear can recover completely from their losses and reach a no-profit-no-loss position if the present price of Rs 1.36 an egg continues till March 2007.

He said that fluctuation in the cost of feed was a cause for concern among the farmers. A kilogram of feed which used to cost Rs 5.60 in June shot up to Rs 7 a kg in August and remained so for most part of September though it came down to Rs 6.30 now. The fluctuations in feed cost might delay the loss recovery period in the three districts.

Rao, also the director of Sri Lakshmi Ganapathi Poultry (P) Limited, said the Centre rescued poultry farmers by declaring a 4 per cent interest waiver for 2005-06 besides giving subsidy on maize, an important ingredient of chicken feed.

"Maize, which is Rs 650 per quintal, is being supplied to the farmers at Rs 450 per quintal." He appealed to the Centre to waive interest for 2006-07 as well to help farmers recover from losses.

He said that the state government had promised to give agriculture status to the poultry sector, a long-pending demand of farmers.

He expressed the hope that the Centre would favourably consider their other demands such as waiver of tax on feed ingredients and cess on eggs, and serving two eggs to students in mid-day meals.

The State government had fixed the value of a poultry shed at Rs 230 per sft as against the actual construction cost of Rs 120 per sft for collection of nine per cent as registration charges besides a fee of one percent.

He requested the government to slash registration charges to 0.5 per cent or fix the upper limit at Rs 5,000.