BHUBANESWAR: The All Odisha Poultry Integrators Forum has alleged that anti-socials are harassing the farmers in various districts and called upon the government to take immediate action to check the menace and promote the enterprise in the State.
The integrators provide chicks and feeds to the poultry farmers to rear them into adult birds. The poultry farmers return the grown up chickens to the integrators after one-and-a-half month to sell them in the market. The integrators pay Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 to each farmer every month for raising at least 1,000 chicks.
However, in the last few days some anti-socials are reportedly obstructing the transportation of chicks to the poultry farmers in districts like Cuttack, Balasore, Dhenkanal, Ganjam, Boudh, Kandhamal and Balangir among others.
The forum had banned around 600 to 700 farmers a few years back from directly selling chickens and feed to various buyers in the State. It suspects the involvement of the banned farmers and their associates behind obstructing the movement of the chicks.
“About eight to nine integrators are producing about 35 lakh chicks every week. There are about 6,000 poultry farmers in the State. We are facing heavy losses as the anti-socials are obstructing the vehicles carrying the birds which are getting killed due to the delay in transportation,” said forum coordinator, Nirmal Kumar Rout.
Rout alleged that despite the government’s instructions to the authorities to ensure unhindered transportation of the chicks and their feed, the district administration and the police are not initiating any action against the anti-socials.
Due to the obstructions, every day about 10,000 to 20,000 chicks are getting killed while being transported to the poultry farmers. Our demand is that the police should take our complaints seriously, he said. The forum also submitted a memorandum to the Directorate of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services and requested it to look into the matter.