| | JUNE 20218VANTAGE POINT Agriculture has always been a primary and one of the most significant activities in India. Presently, agri-business is doing extremely well with poultry farming gradually becoming thefastest growing and most profitable practice in the country. During the past four decades, the Indian poultry industry has transformed at a dramatic rate from age-old backyard farming into a dynamic agri-business. As per the industry estimates, India produces 2.75 million tons of chicken meat and 65.48 million (2.86 million tons) of hen eggs/year. Furthermore, it employs 3 million people and contributes over Rs.45,416 crores to the Gross National Product. Given the global scenario, the world poultry meat production is around 104.0 million tons out of which, chicken meat contributes about 87.4 percent while other species include turkey (6.6percent), duck (4.2percent), and geese (2.7percent). On the global front, China occupies the largest stake with 37.6 percent production of hen eggs followed by the USA with 8.5 percent and India with 5.0 percent. Globally, the demand for organic poultry produce is increasing at an extensive rate and consumers pay a premium price for such eggs and meat. This presents an opportunity to rural farmers to undertake backyard poultry which has immense potential for organic poultry production. Further, due to thehigh demandfor protein-rich food, the farmers can acquire a huge base of health-conscious people acrossthe globe and create a sustainable flow of income. The productivity of raw feedThe present per-capita availability of eggs is 54, whole chicken meat consumption is 2.2 kg whereas the ICMR recommends the consumption of 180 eggs and 10.8 kg poultry meat per person per annum. This showcases a huge gap between the availability and requirement for which the layer and broiler industry has to be upscaled by 5 and 10 folds, respectively. Considering the projected growth of the industry, it correspondingly depends on the availability of feed ingredients to meet the requirement. The estimated compound feed demand for the broiler and layer sectors in 2050 will be around 77 million tons, as per the market report. Thus, to meet this burgeoning demand, it becomes necessary to evolve strategies for increasing the productivity of raw feed ingredients, search for newer feed resources, and effective regulation of supplies for sustainable growth of the sector. HOW POULTRY FARMING IS PROFITABLE TO FARMERSBy PrasannaManogaran, Co- founder and CEO of AqgromalinPrasannaManogaran,Co- founder and CEO
< Page 7 | Page 9 >