Chicken price fall puts poultry farmers in pickle

Hyderabad: In a big disappointment to poultry farmers chicken prices crashed in Telangana. The prices have gone down to Rs 170 from Rs 210 per kg overnight.

The sudden fall in the chicken prices dismayed the farmers ahead of Christmas and New Year celebrations when the consumption is recorded at a high in the State.

Telangana State Poultry Federation attributed the hoarding of the feed by the private traders and demand for instant cash for the supply of feed mainly maize, soya as one of the main reasons for the distress sale of the birds by the poultry owners.

The federation alleged that the government was not taking any steps to check the hoarding of feed material in the market. Currently, Telangana is growing 2 crore live birds which produce 5-6 crore kgs chicken every month.

Poultry Federation leader D Sudhakar said that the feed suppliers are hoarding maize, soya, broken rice and brawn which were being used as regular feed for the live birds and created artificial scarcity.

All the harvested crops are stocked in the black market and the suppliers were demanding instant payment to buy the feed from the growers. Earlier, the feed suppliers collected the payments two week after the purchase of the feed.

The only option left before the farmers is to sell the available stocks at lower prices and generate revenues to meet the required money being spent on the purchase of feed.

Sudhakar said that the hoarders bought maize and soya from the farmers of erstwhile Warangal, Karimnagar, Nizamabad and Adilabad districts.

The farmers got a little more price compared to the MSP provided by the government to the agricultural produce.

After buying the produce, the feed traders hoarded them in the godowns and released the stocks only after the broiler chicken growers pay the necessary amount for feed.

The hoarders also increased feed prices by putting additional burden on the growers.

The federation leaders requested the State government to ensure availability of feed at reasonable prices and check the hoarding in the coming days. Else, the poultry farmers would fall in debt trap soon, Sudhakar averred.