Marginal poultry farmers have demanded fair prices for day-old chicks, lower feed prices and an end to discrimination in the poultry industry. The demands were made in a memorandum to the fisheries and livestock adviser, submitted through the Chattogram deputy commissioner.

Deputy Commissioner Farida Khanam received the memorandum on Wednesday (9 October). Abdus Salam, Sarwar Alam, Md Mujammel, Md Azam, Riton Chowdhury and Toiyab Taher were present on behalf of the district's marginal farmers.

The memorandum said the poultry sector plays an important role in meeting the protein needs of the country's 18 crore people, supplying 40-45 per cent of total meat demand. But with no specific policy for the sector, the arbitrary behaviour and syndicates of hatchery and feed mill companies have pushed chick and feed prices abnormally high, and the sector now faces destruction.

It said some hatchery owners set chick prices as they please, so that a chick sometimes costs Tk 30 and sometimes Tk 70. Setting a fair price for chicks would save marginal farmers from losses.

Citing Covid and the Russia-Ukraine war, and using rising prices of poultry feed ingredients as an excuse, feed mills raised prices of all kinds of feed by 40 to 60 per cent. The government later gave tax cuts and international prices fell, but feed prices in Bangladesh have not come down. The farmers demanded that a fair feed price be set on the basis of actual costs.

The memorandum said the market prices of eggs and broiler chickens in Bangladesh are set by syndicates. Middlemen profit as goods change hands, but small farmers suffer losses; they invest capital and work hard but see no profit. Because goods change hands several times, fair prices cannot be ensured for consumers either. The farmers demanded public hearings with the direct participation of marginal farmers to ensure fair prices for eggs and broilers.

The marginal farmers also demanded a 20 per cent rebate on electricity bills for poultry farms, electricity at a reduced tariff, an end to contract farming run by corporate businesses, insurance coverage for poultry farms, more veterinary doctors and wider scope for poultry exports.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.