Nepal has become self-reliant in poultry and milk products over the decade thanks largely to the involvement of thousands of small-scale farmers across the country. Despite facing various odds and unpredictable difficulties, the poultry industry has provided self-employment and has helped create income opportunities to tens of thousands of people in the rural and urban areas. In spite of the government's minimal support and policy inconsistency, the poultry industry has contributed a lot to increasing the nutritional diet of millions of people, who otherwise would not have imagined getting a taste of meat even once a week some three decades ago.

These days, even a daily wage earner can have the taste of chicken meat on a daily basis due to its cheaper price as compared to mutton and fish, which are not easily available all over the country.

However, it is the same industry that has been facing unpredictable difficulties, ranging from bird flu (H1N1) to increased costs of feed and veterinary services.

When bird flu is detected in one part of the country, it has a rippling effect on another part, crippling the supply chain with sharp decline in the sale of chicken and eggs. It is ultimately the small-scale poultry farmers who have to bear the financial loss.

Following the detection of bird flu in Morang some weeks ago, the federal government recently issued the Bird Flu Control Regulation-2022 for the prevention and control of the highly pathogenic avian influenza across the country. At the centre, there will be an 11-member Bird Flu Control Coordination Committee, led by the director general at the Department of Livestock Services, while a 10-member Bird Flue Control Committee led by the Chief District Officer will be formed in each district. The control committee has been tasked with the responsibility of making arrangement of disease prevention, control and distribution of relief, and preparing and implementing a district-level action plan, among others.

The district level panel can impose a ban on the consumption, sale or distribution, use and transportation of any poultry products until the poultry products are safe for sale and consumption.

The regulations have also provision for providing relief assistance to the farmers who suffer from the loss of their poultry products. But the relief assistance to be provided by the government agencies to the poultry farmers is meager, and it does not cover the investment that they have already made in it.

Most of the small-scale poultry farmers will have to shut down their business after their fowls are culled.

They cannot recoup the loss from the meager assistance from the government, which is also not made available to them on time. Apart from issuing bird flu control measures, the government should have also come up with a plan of providing adequate compensation to the poultry farmers so that they will be able to continue with their business even after their fowls are destroyed due to the outbreak of the disease. In order to make the poultry industry sustainable and secure, the concerned government agency must sit together with the poultry farmers and its association, and introduce an insurance policy which can cover the loss of their investment made in it.

Be sincere

Just months ahead of the local level elections, the Madhes Pradesh government has formed a high-level committee to identify the problems of the farmers and resolve them. An interim report is due in 15 days and the full report in a month. While any move by the provincial government to look into the woes of the farmers should be seen positively, the question is, does it really warrant a 5-member high-level committee comprising all ministers to address farmers' issues? Even without the committee, the farmers' problems are all too plain. They range from a shortage of seeds and fertilisers to irrigation problems and inundation.

To show that the government is indeed serious about resolving all farmers' issues, it could begin by having the sugar industries clear all dues owed to the sugarcane farmers. The farmers would like to know why even after so many years the provincial government has never bothered to resolve the issue, forcing many farmers to switch to other crops. If the committee has been formed by the government solely to offset the growing influence of the CK Raut-led Janamat Party in the region ahead of the local polls, then it is unlikely to serve its purpose.

A version of this article appears in the print on February 7, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.