For four straight months, the country's marginal poultry farmers have been unable to cover even their feed costs from egg sales. They say it costs about Tk 9.5 to Tk 10 to produce each egg, yet they have to sell at only Tk 6.5 to Tk 7.

Because of long-running losses, debt and unpaid electricity bills, many are thinking of closing their farms, and production has stopped on some.

Marginal farmers say that if the situation continues, small and marginal farms will close one after another. That could create an artificial shortage in the market, and consumers would feel the effect too.

According to people in the sector, long-standing market mismanagement, a syndicate of egg traders and weak policy have plunged the poultry industry, worth about Tk 50,000 crore, into a major crisis. If marginal farmers drop out, there are fears the whole industry could come under the control of a few large corporations.

Across Tangail district, known as the "egg capital", farmers are now in despair. A few years ago village after village buzzed with chickens and busy farmers, and the farms created jobs for thousands of people. Now many farms have partly or fully closed, and farmers say those that survive are suffocating.

Khandaker Jahangir Alam, a farmer in the area, told Jagonews24: "Last Monday I sold eggs at Tk 6.5, though each egg cost me Tk 9.5 to produce. I have been selling eggs at a loss for four months. I no longer have the strength to bear the losses."

Farmers say many have gone bankrupt and closed their farms because they could not get a fair price. Some have gone abroad, and others have left the area for fear of their debts.

Another farmer, Abu Hanif, said many farmers have quit the business because they could not get a fair price. "Some have gone abroad, some are on the run with debts. If it goes on like this, we will meet the same fate."

Mosharraf Hossain Chowdhury, president of the Bangladesh Poultry Industries Association (BPIA), told Jagonews24 that for more than two decades it was marginal farmers' hard work that let people eat eggs and chicken at relatively low prices, yet today they are in the deepest crisis.

He said that if marginal farmers drop out, the whole industry will be concentrated in the hands of a few corporate companies, and consumers will then have to buy eggs and chicken at the prices they set.

The BPIA president said: "We call on the current government to give poultry farmers priority in distributing farmer cards. Along with loans and subsidies, it must stand by marginal farmers by fixing market management."

He called for a different market management policy for marginal farmers, with no tax or VAT on their sales, while a different tax could be levied on large corporate farms so that marginal farmers can stay in the competition.

Finally, he demanded electricity subsidies, easy-term loans and all forms of government benefits, as well as separate sales points for marginal farmers in markets and wholesale depots, saying government support is needed in all these areas.

Dr A B M Khaleduzzaman, a director of the Department of Livestock Services (DLS), said the number of poultry farms in the country has fallen. But there are still no precise statistics on the sector: no accurate figures on how many poultry farms there are or how many people the sector employs.

He said the recently approved poultry development policy is expected to help protect the sector.

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