Some 20 poultry farmers submitted a petition letter to the Monggar district court yesterday. They are not happy with the compensation they received from Karma Feeds. The company compensated 31 farmers in Monggar after birds fell ill and died due to supposedly contaminated feeds in December last year.
According to the poultry farmers in Monggar, about Nu 850,000 was provided as compensation to the affected farmers. They said it is not enough and there is a drastic decline in egg production.
“We haven’t been able to pay our loans for some three months following the incident. We wrote to the company twice but did not get a response. So, we have no other way than to take them to the Court,” said Sonam Dorji, an affected poultry farmer.
“Since the incident, our production went down by nearly 40 per cent. Our production used to be about 80 per cent. We have been at a loss,” said Sonam Penjor, another affected poultry farmer.
In the four-page appeal letter submitted to the court yesterday, farmers said that about 800 birds died and more than 2,000 birds are yet to recover.
The farmers are asking for additional compensation of Nu 5.4 M.
“The government’s decision to import eggs has affected poultry farmers like us,” said Pemala.
“We have been already affected and now the government has started importing eggs and selling them at a cheaper rate while the price of the feeds has increased. This has only aggravated our problem,” said Sonam Penjor.
Records show that about 54,000 birds died and some 350,000 birds were affected across the country.
Karma Feeds said it is too early to comment on the compensation amount since the test results are not out yet. They said the compensation was given based on the livestock department’s modality.
The feed samples were sent for testing to India and Thailand. The department is still compiling the test results.
Sonam Tshering, Monggar
