What happens when a golden goose which is the only source of income suddenly stops laying eggs and that the price of the goose is not yet paid in full? This is exactly what poultry farmers in the country, affected by the suspected feed contamination are going through. With egg production hitting rock bottom, they are having a tough time paying off their loans and dues for the feeds. The suspected feed contamination in November last year killed more than 50,000 birds and left some 300,000 ill in about 17 districts across the country.
In Tsirang, poultry farmers get the birds’ feed from the Tsirang Poultry Cooperative and make payments monthly after selling eggs. However, with almost zero egg production after the incident, the payment has been due for two months now. It amounts to about Nu 3 M.
One of the poultry farmers in Tsirang who has been running the farm in a loss since the incident happened is Sari Maya of Gosarling Gewog. It has been a long time since she has been feeding the chickens for absolutely no return.
“I feed at least 200 KG of feed daily but I get only two trays of eggs. It is worth only about Nu 800,” she said.
While the price of feed per day comes to more than Nu 7000, she said the loss is enormous – about Nu.7000.
Likewise, a poultry farmer from Tsholingkhar Gewog, Passang Tamang has spent about Nu 3, 00,000 from his savings to buy feeds in just more than a month.
The Karma Feeds Company recalled the contaminated feeds and supplied new feeds for free, but farmers said birds still don’t lay eggs.
And this has resulted in a backlog of payments for the feeds among farmers.
Amid this difficult situation, the cooperative has for the first time, deferred the closing to June this year.
Meanwhile, the poultry farmers in the dzongkhag are planning to appeal to the company to supply the feed for free until the birds start laying eggs.
Moreover, they will also appeal to the Department of Livestock regarding their dissatisfaction over the compensation they say is less. Earlier, farmers had said that they were not satisfied with the compensation they received for their losses. The birds were categorized as pullets, layers, and broilers and were paid from Nu 100 to 166 for a bird, depending on the category.
Pema Tshewang
Edited by Chayku
