ALAPPUZHA: The state lacks an effective poultry policy to meet the increasing demand for poultry products though Mr K. Raju, Minister for Animal Husbandry, said on Friday that the state would be self-sufficient in egg production in two years. He was inaugurating the ‘egg village’ project to procure eggs launched jointly by Kudumbasree and Kanjikuzhy panchayat. Kerala is still dependent on other states for 1.5million eggs per day.
As per the state planning board, the production of eggs is 1,705 million in place of 3,650 million required. Dr A. Jalaludheen, former special officer of the College of Avian Science and Management of the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU), told DC that a poultry policy was needed to reduce the gap between demand and production.
“Issues like the unavailability of hybrid birds, increasing urbanisation and shortage of 5-kg package feed have become big challenges in the egg production scenario of the state. The government must encourage homestead cages in every house and poultry production should be exempted from taxes,” he says. According to Mr Kuttappan Chettiyar, chairman, Kerala State Poultry Development Corporation (Kepco), which implemented a project in 2013 to address the issue, the government will expand the Kanjikuzhy model of ‘egg village’ to other panchayats.
Kepco will procure eggs from farmers in the state, he adds. A couple of years ago, Kepco had set up layer farms that can house 50,000 birds with temperature control and mechanised egg collection to increase egg production. The production and sale of poultry products suffered with the bird flu outbreak in November, 2014 in Kuttanad and surrounding places forcing the government to impose a ban on the movement of poultry and poultry products.
