NATIONAL 9 (Spotlight Weelky)]

Fluttering Ahead

Chitwan provides a model of the poultry industry's growth in the country

By SANJAYA DHAKAL in Narayangadh

According to unofficial estimates, Chitwan occupies up to 60 percent of the commercial poultry market of the country, including meat and eggs.

Though the poultry industry started in this inner-terai district way back in 1977, it became the mainstay of Chitwan's economy only after 1995/96.

"After we held a major poultry expo in 2052 (1996), the industry grew 100-fold in subsequent years," says Prachanda Lal Pradhan, president of Chitwan District Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CDCCI). At present, the district has 19 feed industries, six big hatcheries and 25 veterinary clinics.

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Rs 15 billion has been invested in the poultry sector, which contributes four percent of the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and eight percent of the total GDP of agriculture. Agriculture, as a whole, contributes 41 percent of the total GDP of the country. Chitwan alone accounts for 30 percent of the feed, 40 percent of broiler chicken and 60 percent of layers chicken production in the country.

Poultry and tourism are now the district's two chief industries. Experts say the climate and the position of the district is responsible for this miraculous progress.

"Chitwan's climate is very suitable for poultry industries and it is located in a very strategic place -- near the big markets," says Arun Shankar Ranjit, Deputy Director-General at the Department of Livestock Development. Chitwan is very near and easily accessible to big cities of the country, including Kathmandu, Pokhara, Hetauda and others.

Besides, Chitwan's proximity to the tourism center could also be one good reason why its poultry industry is flourishing as it is. "More than 25 percent of the products of poultry industries is absorbed by the tourism sector, including hotels and restaurants," says T. P. Timilsina, chief editor and publisher of "Poultry Manch", a monthly journal.

Because of Chitwan's contribution, Nepal is now more or less self-sufficient in poultry products. "We can say we are self-sufficient in poultry, although we can still find foreign products in the market," says Ranjit.

Agrees Timilsina. "Despite problems that surface at times due to the unchecked influx of low-quality Indian eggs and chicken, we are self-sufficient," he says. His magazine has done several studies on the industry.

About half a million people are directly or indirectly involved in poultry farming in the country. In Chitwan alone, 6,000 people are employed directly and 8,000 people indirectly, in the commercial poultry sector. "Interestingly, a sizeable chunk of those directly involved are graduate youths," Timilsina says.

According to Dr. Krishna Kafle, lecturer at the Rampur Agriculture Campus, the industry is growing at the rate of 13 percent.

In terms of the size of the farms, the biggest ones have more than 20,000 chickens and the smallest ones have around 100. "The number of big farms with more than 10,000 chickens are very few and all of them are in Chitwan," Dr. Kafle writes in an article.

The majority of chicken farms in the country are small and scattered. "Small farms make more sense in a poor country like ours with such a huge problem of unemployment," says Timilsina. "But there should be provisions to encourage such farming on the part of the government."

According to him, the high rate of lending imposed by the banks like Agricultural Development Bank, the lack of insurance, improper tax policies and lack of mechanisms to control diseases are the major impediments to this industry. "In Bangladesh, the government gives certain subsidies to every person raising more than 1,000 chickens. Likewise, in India, each bird is insured at Rs 5."

The prospects for the poultry industry here is good in the sense that it is still in the phase of developing. "The present protein intake of Nepalese is very low compared to others so we need to promote the consumption of protein-rich eggs and chicken," says Timilsina.

As a recent study of Nepal's agriculture market by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) estimates the consumption of meat to grow by 40 percent in next 15 years, there are reasons to expand the poultry industry. According to the study, the consumption of chicken meat will grow from present annual 11,278 metric tons to 15,793 metric tons in 2015.

But there are reasons to be apprehensive, concerned people say. "While we have laws regarding the quality of meat, there is no provision to govern the quality of hatcheries and farms," says Timilsina. He says most of the feeds (about 70 percent), which come from India, are not of good quality. "But we have no facilities to test the amino-acid level and other aspects of such imported feeds."

Feeds have a direct impact on the poultry industry. According to international standards, every two kilograms of feed should result in the growth of meat by one kilogram in chicken. But in Nepal, it needs 2.5 kgs of feed to grow the meat volume by the same level. This could be due to substandard feed, experts say.

Likewise, the lack of adequate veterinary research and facilities is also a point of concern. Early last year, there was a shock in the industry after thousands of chickens died in an outbreak of merex disease. "The government and concerned agencies should be wary of such problems and prevent it from causing losses," Timilsina says.

The growth and productivity of the poultry industry also depends on the quality of parent breeds of chicken. At present, Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) has four poultry research stations, says Bhola Man Singh Basnet, a senior official at the NARC. The stations maintain five parent breeds including the "Giriraja" in Pakhribas, according to Shambhu Bahadur Shrestha, an official at the Swine and Avian Research Program, NARC.

"The government provides the pure breed chickens to farmers all over the country," says Deputy Director-General Ranjit. "In fact, we are now concentrating on poultry development for poverty alleviation in the far western region. We will be implementing such program in nine districts of the region in the current fiscal year."

As the country is grappling with the problem of poverty, the promotion of industries like poultry that are locally viable and need less capital, could have a positive result. And the lead taken by Chitwan in this direction is exemplary and needs to be emulated elsewhere.