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Navapur yet to recover from bird flu loss
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Saturday, 06 January, 2007, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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By A Correspondent, Navapur
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rashtra's Navapur area are yet to restart business after they were hit by bird flu in February last year. And the total egg production in the town has dropped to 10%. In its prime, Navapur with a capacity of 1.65 crore layer birds and 10-13 lakh-a-day egg production in 82 farms, enjoyed an annual turnover of Rs 50 crore. More than 5,000 people were employed directly or indirectly. Today, the egg production has slumped to 1-1.5 lakh eggs per day.
Figures are difficult to collate in such an unorganised sector. But estimates suggest that the total loss that the poultry industry of Navapur took due to bird flu was around Rs 26 crore. That included the loss of birds (12 lakh), loss of poultry feeds (3.4 lakh kg), loss of eggs (7 lakh), loss of manure (4,675 tonnes), loss of raw materials (93,800 quintals), among others. And the social and economic loss to the taluka is pegged at Rs 71 crore.
"It can't get worse. We are even losing our men now," laments Gulam Vohra, president, Navapur Poultry Farmers Association. Almost 70% of the farm workers who have been unemployed for almost a year are now moving to Surat and other areas in search of a livelihood.
Vohra points out that most farmers would not be able to restart as each has to spend anything between Rs 80 and Rs 100 for every bird and that each bird will start laying eggs only after 16-20 weeks. "The small farmers with 15,000 to 20,000 birds were operating their business on loans from cooperative banks. Though the banks were helpful in providing relief in the payment of installments after the bird flu debacle, the farmers still have to repay their dues some day." Hence, he adds, "It's hard for these farmers to raise money to revamp their business."
The poultry farmers feel that the government could have helped them. They admit that the government has compensated them by paying Rs 40 each for the birds culled by the authorities to contain the spread of bird flu. But they are yet to receive financial aid from the government for the loss of raw material (poultry feed) worth Rs 5.70 crore which was destroyed during the culling operation.
Rashid Timol, owner of Saheen Poultry Farm, says: "In the central government fails to the rehabilitation package for the poultry farmers, Navapur may witness a Vidarbha-like situation in the coming days." Saheen poultry has a capacity of 50,000 layer birds, but he has stocked just 1,000 to 2,000 birds. The department of animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries of the ministry of agriculture, Government of India, had issued a letter to the animal husbandry department of Maharashtra for the restocking of sentinel birds from August 24, 2006, in Navapur. The restocking of the poultry to full capacity was allowed after September 25.
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