Mumbai: Many in the poultry farming business believe that if cage-free poultry farming is to be taken up in India, the cost of an egg will shoot up four-fold.
At a session on ‘Understanding Cage Free Poultry’ organised by the National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC) and Vista Processed Foods, speakers termed cage-free poultry “a mishap, a catastrophe in an already protein-deficient nation”.
“Cage-free poultry farming will amplify the prices of the eggs by at least four times from the current ₹5 an egg to ₹20,” Bhupinder Singh, CEO of Vista Processed Foods, said. He said that with increasing prices of pulses, consumers resort to eggs to acquire essential amino acids. “A rise in price will deter the consumption.”
Speakers at the session emphasised the fact that the yearly per capita consumption of eggs in India is as low as 62, as against 182 as necessitated by the National Nutrition Institute.
Advocates of cage-free poultry farming have argued that the system allows chickens to move freely and have their own nesting spaces.
Few members from the industry, however, said they were open to studying the method. Rohit Sahni, a third-generation farmer from Veekay farms, Pune, said, “We have taken up efforts to study cage-free farming in Europe, and how it can be moulded to suit to Indian chicken breeds. There is a need to research its infrastructure and sustainability.”
