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Poultry industry shows marked resilience
The Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology (NIAB) has virtually become a "junction" for promoting agriculture, livestock and other allied fields owing to innovations based on nuclear technique and research in various disciplines.
This was observed at a workshop on "Diagnostic and Analytical Facilities for Feed and Food Analysis for Poultry Industry" held under the aegis of NIAB the other day.
The workshop was inaugurated by Dr Abdul Ghafoor Chaudhry, President, Pakistan Poultry Association (Punjab Zone). About 70 veterinary doctors and scientists related to various aspects of poultry industry participated in the workshop.
Pakistan Poultry Association (Faisalabad Zone) secretary Dr Abdul Jabbar Abbasi explained the set-up of PPA and enumerated its objectives and achievements.
NIAB director Dr Mohsin Iqbal highlighted the achievements of his organization in the field of agriculture in general and livestock and poultry vaccine production in particular.
Elaborating details of the diagnostic and feed analysis facilities offered by NIAB and the objectives of the workshop, he said the poultry industry has great potential which required to be explored by experts.
He said at present poultry was the main source of low cost protein and therefore the experts should keep in mind that this sector needed to be patronized, monitored and analyzed in consonance with the modern-day development for bringing about improvement in quality of poultry as well as the evolution of cost effective poultry feed.
Dr Sikandar Hayat, dean, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, University of Agriculture, appreciated the role of NIAB in boosting yields of various crops, especially cotton, as well as animal health.
He said agricultural scientists should take advantage of modern research facilities available in NIAB for the benefit of farmers and strengthening the national economy.
The experts revealed that the poultry industry in Pakistan had shown marked resilience and growth over the past 20 years despite climatic, structural and disease-related constraints. The foundations of poultry industry were laid by M/s Shaver of Canada through PIA, back in 1962.
"It is now the second largest industry run without any significant help of the government. It has greatly supplemented the national requirements of protein as indicated in an economic survey conducted by the government of Pakistan. The wholesale price of eggs and broilers dropped by 32 per cent and 14 per cent respectively during the 1983-93 decade while that of mutton and beef increased by 34 per cent and 75 per cent, respectively. Punjab produced 65 per cent of eggs and broilers followed by 25 per cent by Sindh," they added.
According to them, the per capita consumption of chicken and eggs in Pakistan was 2.8 kg and 40-45 eggs, respectively, compared to 35 kg chicken and 260 eggs consumed in the US. To maintain this production level, there are four million breeders in Pakistan producing 2.8 million chickens daily.
The apprehension of disease always hovers over the poultry industry. Instead of devoting their energies to supervising their flocks and strengthening their business, the poultry farmers are constrained to divert attention to combating diseases. Besides, the mortality of birds causes huge loss to them.
The experts observed that with the outbreak of diseases, an unending process of diagnosis took place, while the diseases continued to play havoc with the flocks and farmers. Because of this fact and the high cost of production, the profitability of poultry farming was sharply declining.
They contended that poultry feed was an important component of the poultry industry as it alone cost about 70 per cent of the total expenditure. Its quality control with respect to chemical constituents, insects, fungal infestation and mycotoxins was essential to safeguard the farming community against substandard feed constituents. The feed prepared from defective ingredients under unhygienic conditions without back-up laboratory facilities may lower the productivity of flocks and result in spread of diseases.
The experts pointed out that quantitative and qualitative losses caused by fungi in feed were by no means of minor importance. The importance of fungi becomes greater when some of them produce toxins in the feed under certain favourable conditions and are therefore injurious to the biological system. Information about nutritional adequacy of feed will go a long way in checking the nutritional status and hygiene of poultry feed.
The chairman of Pakistan Poultry Association, Punjab zone, painted a bleak picture of analytical facilities available for evaluation of poultry feed and diagnosis of diseases in Pakistan.
He was skeptical about the accuracy and authenticity of results of analysis of feed supplied by different laboratories. He was eager to develop collaboration with NIAB in that regard.
He indicated that the association could help in strengthening the analytical facilities at NIAB and would pay for the feed samples analyzed. Keeping this and the laboratory facilities available at NIAB in view, it was planned to extend the diagnostic facilities to poultry farmers at reasonable rates.
According to him, the infrastructure was already available and no extra cost was involved. The programme would be an additional source of income to NIAB, besides serving the poultry industry.
Pakistan Poultry Association president Dr Abdul Ghafoor Chaudhry appreciated the efforts made by NIAB for providing diagnostic and analytical facilities to the poultry industry.
He said in the past adequate facilities were available only at Karachi, Islamabad and to some extent at Lahore. But now the same facilities would be available at Faisalabad. He praised the NIAB director for taking keen interest in the matter.
A number of participants during the informal session contended that most "investors" in the poultry industry belonged to low-income group which had been running their poultry farms with meagre savings.
They claimed that the main reason of the low price of poultry were the cheap methods employed by farm owners for breeding, feeding, grooming and treating the birds.
They complained that the prices of medicines had gone up manifold and the experts should develop low-cost medicines suiting local conditions. They stressed the need for checking the menace of spurious drugs in the poultry sector which, according to them, was ruining them financially as well as causing a great setback to the sector.
The poultry farmers complained that due to the ban on feasting in marriages, the prices came down drastically and crippled a number of small farm owners who virtually became paupers overnight.
They were of the view that the government should formulate long-term policies envisaging assessment of their problems to minimize harm.
A pioneer manufacturer of poultry protein, Rifaat Saroosh Faisal, talking to Dawn contended that it was high time the scientists evolved more ingredients from the local raw material to reduce the prices of feed further.
According to him, by recycling the waste of the poultry birds and converting it into a feed ingredient millions in foreign exchange could be saved which could be instrumental in promoting feed production and ensuring cheap rates of poultry.
He claimed that Pakistan was the only country in the world where the entire waste of the poultry birds was being converted into feed and the manufacturing units were also locally made.
He said some feed manufacturers who were mainly responsible for the rising prices due to speculative business and were making fabulous profits on account of monopoly.
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Pakissan.com;
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