Poultry industry in Pakistan is once again facing a catastrophe, as devastating heat wave, frequent load shedding and power break down are not just fatal for human population, but all types of poultry including breeding flocks, commercial broilers and laying birds have suffered unprecedented mortality in recent weeks.
Punjab which has 70 percent of poultry population is worst hit, where mortality on some farms is as high as 25 percent. Economic losses due to drop in production of hatching eggs, table eggs, broiler weight gain are far greater.
As a consequence of depletion of live chicken and breeding hen there will be significant reduction in supply of poultry in weeks and months ahead, creating a gap in demand and supply, said Mir Tahir Zaidi, Chairman, Pakistan Poultry Association, in a statement on Sunday.
He said, paradoxically, business reporters and civil society will once again blame poultry producers for manipulating poultry prices and will hold them responsible for price hike.
Planners and policy makers are upbeat on growth in poultry and livestock in days ahead, they are not cognisant of need for uninterrupted power supply for present modern poultry farming.
Poultry farming in its conventional form is not sustainable anymore because of poor production efficiency. The industry has to transform to become more efficient and sustainable.
"Recently announced Prime Minister's Poultry Policy is a step in right direction but some prerequisites to achieve desired goals seem to be missing ie training and capacity building of available human resource, environment controlled housing, continuous power supply chain management of poultry products, packaging and processing of poultry. It requires investment of billions of rupees in infrastructure in a short span of time," he said. More than 70 percent of production cost of chicken and eggs is 'feed', which has shown unprecedented price increase in recent months.
Poultry feed prices have gone up by 22 percent highest ever in one calendar year, these prices are likely to go further up due to unavailability of broken rice for the first time in history of feed industry in Pakistan.
Target of 15 percent annual growth in poultry requires a corresponding growth in agriculture crops specific to poultry feed industry, which is an uphill task but doable, provided, the strategy is targeted and focused and private sector is taken on board to rope-in major stakeholders and benefit from collective wisdom, he concluded.
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