Has to kill one crore chicks each week
The poultry industry has been facing serious setbacks with small and medium farmers incurring losses unable to sell chicken and eggs to due to transport problems caused by the nationwide blockade. About one crore one-day old chicks, worth Tk 30 crore, had to be killed in one week since January 6 due to lack of storage facilities, said poultry farmers. And 16 trucks carrying chickens and feed were burnt during the blockade, said industry leaders.
They appealed to the ruling Awami League as well the BNP to find a way out of the political crisis immediately to facilitate resumption of business in a peaceful atmosphere.
The nationwide blockade since January 6 cut off the capital with the rest of the country.
Fani Bhuya and Mohammad Sabuj, small poultry farmers at Sagordi, Ghatail, Tangail district said that they were unable to sell their eggs and broiler chickens due non availability of transports.
Their stocks of eggs swelled and broilers were getting aged, they said.
The failure to sell in due time is increasing their losses, they said.
Mohammad Jasim and Rafiqul Islam from Bhaluka, Mymensingh said that they were unable to sell eggs, broiler chickens and procure the needed feeds from market.
A veterinary doctor stationed at Bhaluka said that facing financial constraints poultry farmers in the area were compelled to provide less of feeds to their poultry.
Famers usually buy poultry feeds after selling eggs and they are now forced to give 50 grams of feed to each chicken per day instead of 120 grams, he said.
Breeders Association of Bangladesh general secretary Saidur Rahman Babu told New Age that the country’s 80 poultry parent breeders that breed one crore chicks each week need to sell one day-old chicks immediately.
Each one-day old chick sells for Tk 30, he said.
The shortage of storage facilities and failure to sell were compelling the breeders to kill one-day old chicks causing huge losses, he said.
The non stop blockade virtually halted the supply of broiler chickens and eggs to markets, he said.
The stockpiles of unsold eggs swelled at layer poultry farms, he said.
Nilsagar Group, among the country’s biggest poultry and layer farms, has been facing a serious setback due to transport problem, its chairman engineer Md Ahsan Habib Lanin told New Age.
Storage facility shortage compels the Nilphamari based farm to kill one lakh chicks each day, he said.
According to Lanin’s estimates small chicks, worth Tk three to four crore had to be killed in last few days.
He made a fervent appeal to keep the supply chain of poultry medicines, feeds and the birds undisturbed as the poultry industry provides employment to millions of workers.
The country’s 70,000 broiler and layer farms employ about 70 lakh workers, according to the breeder association.
-With New Age input
