PRABHAKAR GHIMIRE
KATHMADNU, Aug 12:
Increasing chicken deaths coupled with skyrocketing production cost
have inflicted heavy loss for the last nine consecutive months to
struggling poultry industry, forcing entrepreneurs to either reduce the
number chicken in the farms or quit the business.Reports of bird-flu earlier this year, frequent strikes and lately the
attacks of various diseases have threatened the poultry industry, which
is one of the rapidly growing industries in the country.
“We have a tentative estimation that around one-third of the
poultry farms across the country are either without chickens or the
number of chicken has been slashed by around one-third as entrepreneurs
are unwilling to keep more chickens in the farms fearing loss due to
spread of diseases and rising production cost,” said Dr Til Chandra
Bhattarai, poultry researcher.
Bhattarai, who is also president of Nepal Feed Industries Association,
said attack of High Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), Low Pathogenic
Avian Influenza (LPAI), viral, bacterial and fungal load due to soaring
number of poultry population in concentrated areas, Viscerotropic
Velogenic Newcastle Diseases (VVND), Ecoli, Mycoplasma and Fowl Cholera
are the major diseases found in the major poultry districts including
Chitwan.
“Less effectiveness in bio-security applied in the farms due to use of
sub-standard vaccines, medicines and other chemicals has resulted in
increasing attack of the diseases,” said Guna Chandra Bista, president
of Nepal Federation of Poultry Entrepreneurs (NFPE).
Bista said rampant smuggling of poultry products, mainly chicks from
India, is also one of the major challenges to control the diseases.
“We are on the verge of losing billions of rupees invested in the
poultry sector due to growing threat from number of diseases which can´t
be brought under control easily as we lack required expertise and
resources. So, we want the government to support us to rein in on the
emerging threats to one of the major commercialized sectors which has
been suffering loss for the last nine consecutive months,” said
Bhattarai.
Around 10,000 small or big poultry farms are estimated to have been
operating across the country. Estimated of Rs 32 billion has been put
into the poultry with the annual turnover of Rs 50 billion.
According to Bhattarai, price of some of major ingredients of feeds shot
up by 134 percent compared to the prices three years back. However,
over the period, the feed prices have gone up by in the range of 36 to
50 percent depending on the varieties.
Worse still, the prices of broiler and layer chicks declined to Rs 45
and Rs 89 this year from Rs 61 and Rs 95 per head last year
respectively.
Bhattarai also said the number of entrepreneurs quitting the poultry
farming would go up if the ongoing situation continues, which has been
contributing around 3.5 percent of total Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“Illegal imports of chicks, ready birds and poultry meat from India and
high mortality rate and poor productivity in farms has dragged down the
prices of poultry products. However, rapid rise in price of soybean,
maize and bone mill in international market has driven up the cost of
poultry production,” said Tikaram Pokharel, vice president of NFPE. He
said entrepreneurs could face more adverse situation if they failed to
introduce new technology to ensure effective bio-security to prevent the
attack of diseases in the farms.
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