Poultry farmers in Tsirang and Monggar affected by the suspected contaminated feed incident are not happy with the monetary compensation. They say the amount, which the Karma Feeds Company is currently giving out to the affected farmers, was decided without their consultation. They say the amount is also too little to cover their losses. Thousands of farm chickens died in different parts of the country in November, last year after being fed bird feeds that are suspected to have been contaminated. The samples of the feed have been sent abroad for lab testing and the results are awaited.
The affected poultry farmers are being given compensations ranging from Nu 30 to Nu 166 for five categories of birds. Of the total deaths, nine per cent is being considered normal deaths and don’t get compensation.
Karma Feeds said the compensation amounts were fixed by the department of livestock.
Meanwhile, the affected poultry farmers say they were not consulted at all before deciding on the compensation amounts.
“When we get Nu 91 for one dead bird, we are running into a loss of Nu 400. Even if they give Nu 500 per bird, it is a loss for us. This is because each bird has already consumed feed worth Nu 500,” said Sari Maya, a poultry farmer in Gosarling Gewog.
Another poultry farmer Harka Prasad Pathak said he has been waiting for over a month for his birds to lay eggs again. “Birds still keep on dying and we have to bear a loss of more than Nu 220,000 monthly. We are running into a huge loss now,” he said.
Jigtendra Rizal had almost 400 broilers but all died. “The compensation amount is not even 10 per cent of the expenditure for four hundred birds,” he said.
They say they would be happy with even fifty per cent of the total expenses they incurred for raising the birds.
The story is no different for poultry farmers in Monggar.
“The compensation is for two weeks from now. But who will bear the losses that we have been going through so far,” said Sonam Dorji from Drepong Gewog. “It has been a month now without egg production. If our birds don’t lay eggs within two weeks from now it will add more loss to us.”
“Our members are not expecting 100 per cent compensation but they are happy either to increase compensation amount or free feeding during the gap where birds are not laying eggs,” said Hom Nath Thapa, who works as an accountant at the Tsirang Poultry Cooperative. “We have discussed with the poultry farmers and now are in the process of appealing to Karma Feeds Company on the above grounds.”
The farmers in the two districts are planning to write a letter to the feed company.
Meanwhile, the Department of Livestock in an email response to BBS said, the compensation amount was calculated based on the current prevailing farm mortality, which is at nine per cent and the cost of production determined by the National Commodity Centre. They also stated that the department couldn’t consult with the affected poultry farmers while working out the compensation amount, “purely due to the urgency of the situation wherein the plights of farmers affected by the contaminated feed was becoming increasingly desperate and called for immediate remedial measures.”
The response added that the department is currently studying the impact of the feed disaster on poultry farms and is working on measures to revive the poultry farms to bring back normal as instructed by the ministry.
As per the Department of Livestock’s circumstantial evidence, over 54,000 birds in 17 districts died due to the suspected feed contamination incident.
Pema Tshewang & Sonam Tshering
Edited by Yeshi Gyaltshen
