The Kerala Chicken, an ambitious project of the State government, has been hit as close to 1.5 lakh chicks in poultry farms in Kasaragod, Kannur, Wayanad, Palakkad, Malappuram and Kozhikode districts are struggling for survival due to shortage of poultry feed.
When the project was launched two years ago, 86 prospective farmers entered the venture expecting a better return from the project.
“Though we have got a sustainable income from the project for the past many months, now it turnds out to be a great loss owing to dearth of poultry feed,” Ashraf Mampuzha, a farmer says. He is rearing as many as 10,000 chickens.
It is a common sight in the farms where chicks fight each other for food and die, farmers say.
Fatal fights
Once it is wounded in the fight, it would die soon, Mr. Ashraf says adding more than 2,000 chicks rearing in various farms in Malappuram and Palakkad were killed in the fight in the recent past.
The farmers are also facing difficulty to market chicken and eggs owing to the difficulty in transporting it. The condition of other farmers in the State is not different, he adds.
Though the poultry feed haw been included in the essential goods, the border States of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are not allowing trucks to enter the State, says M.V. Santhosh, administrative officer, Kerala Chicken project.
The decision has been taken at the ministerial level, but it is yet to be executed at the grassroots, he adds.
Abattoir
The Brahmagiri Development Society (BDS), the nodal agency for the project, has established the first multi-species abattoir in South India, the Malabar Meat products. It has been given ₹20 crore as part of budgetary allocations for hatching out the Kerala Chicken brand.
The project was launched to tap the ₹4,000-crore poultry meat market of the State, ensuring quality meat for consumers on affordable price and fair income for poultry farmers.
A cooperative initiative under the Department of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, the BDS will be supported by the Poultry Development Corporation and Kudumbashree in the mission.
