Poultry farmers of Langthil in Trongsa are worried that in a few days they will be out of poultry feed. They claim that their lone agent in the gewog has ten bags only in stock as of yesterday. The Karma Feed agent in the gewog said the issue has been under discussions with the district officials for a week now but to no avail.
Working as a Karma Feed agent in Langthil Gewog for almost a decade, 54-year-old Lengkong now also owns a poultry farm with 1,200 chickens. He said the conditions such as storing of the feed not exceeding a month and lack of proper warehouses for poultry farmers were some of the inconveniences that contradicted the district’s livestock official’s directives of stocking in time of emergency.
Moreover, he said he could not go to get the feeds as the risk of COVID-19 is quite high while switching the driver at the Sorchen checkpoint, according to him. Normally he travels twice to Phuentshogling and stocks about 500 bags of Karma feeds every month.
“I see high risks of transmission of the pandemic due to the driver switching rule. Therefore if the driver of the Karma feed is escorted till here, they need not get into contact with others so the risks less.”
And with the stock exhausting, poultry farmers in the gewog are worried that they might lose their birds altogether.
“I have about 200 egg-laying chickens and as per the training received recently, about 25 kilograms must be fed to them in a day. So a bag of 50 kilograms is enough for just a couple of days. However, I am able to feed only quarter to what is advised to keep them alive, though the egg production is lessening,” said RinzinWangchuk, a Poultry farmer in Langthil.
“I have 200 chickens for now but I am planning to have an additional of about 2,000 chickens. So, to have better laying chickens and for better egg production, karma feed is important. For instance, if we feed the rice that we eat or other foods then the chicken do not lay eggs like the ones fed with Karma feed,” said Sonam Tshering, also a Poultry farmer.
The Southern COVID-19 Task Force enforced the driver exchange modality rule recently after the third lockdown in Phuentshogling.
However, the district livestock sector said the district has enough stock with other agents to last for a month. The district livestock sector is also facilitating inter-agent purchases. Langthil Gewog alone has about nine poultry farm with a minimum of 500 chickens in each of the farms. There are three agents dealing with poultry feed in the district.
Meanwhile, Karma Feed Director Chencho Wangyal also expressed that it will be convenient for them to have a driver escort like in the past lockdowns. For now, they are strictly adhering to the driver switching system though it delayed the consignments across the country. The office is also planning to set up a regional feed stocking sooner to solve such issues in future.
Passang, Trongsa
