Turnover of poultry farms at Rs 33.72bn a year

Kathmandu, June 12

Commercially run poultry farms have an annual turnover of Rs 33.72 billion, which is equivalent to 1.5 per cent of the country’s economy, states a survey commissioned by Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).

The gross value addition (GVA) in the poultry sector hovers around Rs 6.84 billion in a year. Poultry owners spend Rs 26.88 billion in a year for feed, vaccine, chicken hatchlings and salary for employees, among others, against their total earnings of Rs 33.72 billion, as per the recent survey.

The survey has revealed that poultry business in the country expanded substantially during 2004 to 2013 as 19,864 farms out of the total 21,956 operational farms were established in the period. CBS commissioned the survey in 64 districts of the country from 31 December, 2013, to 30 December, 2014.

“Seventy-six per cent of the farms are in profit and 80 per cent of the farm owners have talked about expanding their business.”

The poultry sector is booming in the country and has been consequently leading the country towards self-reliance in chickens and eggs. A total of 114,580 tonnes of chicken meat is being produced in a year and the per capita chicken meat consumption in the country stands at 4.1 kg. Likewise, 1.20 billion units of eggs are produced in a year.

Poultry farms are commercially run in 64 districts of the country. Among them there are more than 1,000 farms each in Chitwan, Dang and Kavre districts. Similarly, there are over 500 farms each in Kailali, Surkhet, Kathmandu, Nawalparasi, Makawanpur, Sunsari, Morang and Jhapa districts.

Only 5,040 or 23 per cent of farms are registered at Department of Livestock Services, District Livestock Services Office, Office of Company Registrar and village development committee and municipality offices.

As per the survey, a significant number or 25 per cent of farm owners are reliant on informal source of financing, 32.2 per cent on cooperatives and 42.7 per cent on banks and financial institutions. During the survey period, 62.3 per cent farm owners said that they require additional credit.

According to the survey, 49 per cent of farm owners were involved in agriculture, 14 per cent in foreign employment, 13 per cent in trading business, 12 per cent in jobs, six per cent were students and five per cent were in other professions before embracing poultry farming.

During the survey period, 60.82 million fowls were found in commercially run poultry farms. Among them, 87 per cent were broiler farmed for meat production and 11 per cent were layers farmed for egg production. The hatchability rate from parent fowl is 74.2 per cent, as per the survey. “The mortality rate is 12.8 per cent and 9.2 per cent in broilers and layers, respectively.”

Altogether, 55,871 people are employed in the poultry sector. Among them, 31,330 are males and 24,541 are females. Around 14 per cent of the women own the farms.

To expand the sector further the survey has recommended interest rate subsidy in credit for poultry, subsidy in insurance premium, proper market facility, training for farm employees, monitoring of the quality of feed, availability of technical service, and rate fixation of chickens and eggs. It has also talked about providing compensation for farm owners if the eggs and chickens need to be destroyed due to bird flu, and certain grant to build chicken coop, and for purchase of feed and chicken hatchlings.