Poultry farm owners have said they are facing difficulties in getting credit from banks, which fear the industry still remains vulnerable to bird flue and risky for investment.
World's Poultry Science Association- Bangladesh Branch (WPSA-BB) President Moshiur Rahman told FE the Tk. 15 billion industry lost Tk 5.0 billion due to the outbreak of Avian Influenza in 2007, which battered the country's booming sector.
The disease continued to affect the poultry industry at a milder level during the subsequent year.
Mr Rahman said the industry faced two outbreaks- economic outbreak after 1/11 and the outbreak of Bird Flu.
He said the poultry industry has been declared as an agro-based industry. But facilities provided to other agro-based sectors are not being provided to this industry to encourage its growth.
Banks and other financial institutions are reluctant to invest in the sector because of the fear of outbreak of the highly contagious disease, participants at the ongoing '6th International Poultry Show and Seminar 2009' said.
The contribution of the livestock sector to the country's gross domestic product (GDP) is 3.0 per cent.
In last two decades, the industry has achieved 15 per cent growth per year on an average, industry-insiders said.
They said the poultry farms are not getting loan at 7.0 per cent interest rate as received by others in agriculture sector.
The government had advised commercial banks that they might reschedule loan taken by the affected poultry farms. But it has not made it mandatory. So, it has become a choice of the banks, they said.
Rahman said quoting a recent study that only 10 per cent of the closed down farms have made a come back in last six months.
He also urged the government to waive the interest of the bank loans and provide fresh loan at lower interest rate to recover from the losses incurred in the past years. He also requested to bring the poultry industry under insurance policy.
Industry sources said the caretaker government haphazardly culled thousands of chicks and destroyed eggs and farms within one kilometre of an affected area.
According to the data of WPSA-BB, six million people were employed in country's 150,000 poultry farms in 2006. But at the end the December 2008, the number of farms and people employed came down to 60,000-70,000 and 2 to 2.5 million respectively due to the outbreak of deadly H5N1 virus.
Weekly broiler production has reduced to 3.0 to 3.5 million from 7.0 million and layer production to 0.15 million from 0.34 million.
The annual meat production declined to 0.22 million ton in 2008 from 0.35 million ton of 2006.
The daily egg production also saw a decline. At the end of the 2008, the production came down to 7.0-7.5 million which was 15 million in 2006, WPSA-BB data shows.
Provita Feed Ltd officials said the sale of feed has declined by 30 per cent and 15-20 per cent hatcheries have been closed down because of bird flu outbreak.
The production of feed is also down by 40 per cent as the demand has fallen. Some 5.0 per cent of feed mills have been shut down, they said.
Sources said around 9.0 million day-old chicks were produced a week prior to the bird flu hit the industry. It quickly came down to a meager 4.0 million, which means over 50 per cent production declined.
They said 80 per cent layer and 30 to 40 per cent broiler farms were destroyed during the government drive against the spread of bird flue.
Although the authority paid Tk 90 as compensation for every bird culled at that time, many of the affected farmers, who earlier closed down their farms, have failed to get back to their business for lack of fund, they claimed.
The outbreak took a toll on the industry as the price of the poultry meat and egg came down substantially immediately after the outbreak. But the price soon went up as the supply reduced on the back of reduced production, Industry-people said.
The industry-insiders said the government should fix the price of the day-old chick and egg to keep the price under the purchasing capacity of the people.
Currently, the price of a day-long chick is Tk 35-38, which was Tk 42 a few days ago. Any price above Tk 20 for a day-old chick is profitable for the farmers and businessmen, sources said.
There might not be widespread outbreak of Bird Flu this year as the typical danger period (November-March) is almost over and a good season is waiting for poultry sector, Dr. Md. Zahedul Islam, marketing officer (Livestock) of Aftab Bahumukhi Farms Ltd told FE.
UNB adds: earlier on Thursday, while addressing the event Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury blamed the past caretaker government for leaving the country's poultry industry paralysed by allowing indiscriminate incineration of chickens.
She said neighboring India tackled the Avian Influenza, better known as bird flue, by burning birds in only the affected farms.
But the then government in Bangladesh "burnt the birds of farms within one kilometer of an affected one that rendered a large number of small poultry farmers insolvent or unemployed".
For such action the employment in the fast growing sector halved, from 5.0-5.5 million to 2.0-2.5 million while business farms decreased from 150,000 to 60,000-70,000 in 2008, she said.
But the present government has taken all possible and effective measures to protect the poultry industry, she said, adding that all forms of government support will be given to the poultry farms and related farms as the country need to overcome the deficiency of protein.
The agriculture minister urged the country's scientists and researchers to invent local vaccines for making the medicines available to poultry farmers.
She assured that for making protein cheaper to the consumers, the government would take initiative to make the relevant commodities and accessories available at cheaper prices.
The government will not allow anyone promoting imported vaccines or creating panic to destroy the poultry industries, the minister cautioned.
A total of 171 stalls of poultry farms, importers, scientists and entrepreneurs are participating in the three-day show.
Poultry sector in distress as banks find funding risky
Md. Fazlur Rahman | Published: March 07, 2009 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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