Poultry population up by 32 percent over the year

KATHMANDU, Aug 18: Despite diseases in poultry farms and frequent bandas organized by different groups, poultry population shot up by impressive 32 percent during the fiscal year 2011/12 as the poultry farms increased capacity to meet the soaring demands.



Dr Til Chandra Bhattarai, a poultry researcher who conducted the research for Federation of Poultry Industries, said poultry population which includes - broiler parents, layer parents, commercial broilers and commercial layers - increased to 85.59 million during the review year from 64.6 million recorded earlier year.[break]



According to the fresh report, population of broiler parents rose by 38 percent to 1.11 million and layer parents by 18 percent to 102,794 during the fiscal year 2011/12. Similarly, the commercial broilers and commercial layers went up by 31 percent and 41 percent to reach 76.6 million and 8.3 million respectively.



“ We saw poultry population surged by one-third during the fiscal year 2011/12 because poultry farms expanded their capacity in the beginning of the year to fulfill the growing demands of poultry products in the domestic market,” Bhattarai, who is also president of Nepal Feed Industries Association, told Republica.



With the rise in the population of commercial broilers, chicken (meat) production also climbed by 23 percent to 132.35 million kg over the year. Similarly, production of eggs rose by 34 percent to 1.49 billion pieces during the review year.



Rise in broiler and layer parents also drove up the production of broiler and layers chicks in the hatcheries across the country by 32 percent and 13 percent to 80.91 million heads and 6.99 million heads during the fiscal year 2011/12 as compared to the number recorded earlier year.



However, poultry producers are worried about the upcoming production volume of poultry amid increasing chicken deaths coupled with skyrocketing production cost for last few months.



Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), Low Pathogenic Avian Influenza (LPAI), viral, bacterial and fungal load due to soaring number of poultry population in concentrated areas, Viscerotropic Velogenic Newcastle Diseases (VVND), Ecoli, Mycoplasma and Fowl Cholera are the major diseases found in the major poultry districts including Chitwan. Similarly, increasing price of raw materials used in poultry industries has also driven up the cost of production threatening the industry.

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