Lockdown pushes poultry farmers to quandary
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, April 01 2020: Poultry farmers in the State are now facing a very harrowing situation as poultry feeds are no longer available because of the lockdown imposed all over the country to limit and check the spread of COVID-19 .

On receiving reports about poultry farmers selling away chicken at Rs 100 which weighs 1.5 Kg to 2 Kgs during the past couple of days, this reporter visited some poultry farmers and it was found that they sold off their chickens at whatever prices offered by customers instead of risking imminent loss of the entire investment.

Lockdown pushes poultry farmers to quandary

One poultry farmer said that it takes 45 days in rearing chickens to the stage fit for consumption of their meat.

An investment of around Rs 4.5 lakh is needed to raise 1500 chickens to maturity over a period of 45 days.

Around Rs 1 lakh is needed for buying poultry chicks while Rs 3.5 lakh is spent on buying poultry feeds, said the farmer.

He said that they can earn a profit of around Rs 60,000 in rearing 1500 chickens over a period of 45 days.

However, poultry feeds are no longer available these days on account of the complete lockdown imposed by the Government to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

Agents dealing in poultry feeds said that shipping of poultry feeds has ceased due to the lockdown.

But when chickens are underfed, they eat rice husks which make them sick and die ultimately.

Since a few years back, the number of people who depend on poultry farming for their livelihood rose considerably.

At the same time, consumption of chicken surged proportionately, said the poultry farmer.

However, majority of the poultry farmers will incur huge losses this time.

In order to minimise the losses, many of them have been selling off chickens at Rs 50 to Rs 100 which weigh 1.5 Kg to 2 Kg per piece.

But poultry farmers don't have any idea about what they should do with smaller chickens which are not yet fit for consumption.

As such many of them have reconciled to accept whichever number of chickens which may die in the next couple of weeks as well the number of chickens which may survive the ordeal.