The impact of the coronavirus has created an acute crisis in Gazipur's poultry industry. With eggs and meat not covering their production costs, farmers have been counting losses for nearly a month. Within a few days small farmers have been close to losing everything, and they have no one to turn to. Scenes of such despair have been seen across Gazipur.

According to the Gazipur poultry traders' owners' association, there are 7,200 poultry farms in the district's five upazilas, with about 20,000 people involved in them. Most farmers are small and medium-sized. They have run their farms with everything they have while overcoming many obstacles, but can no longer cope with the coronavirus crisis. In the past, too, they received little incentive from the government in hard times, and so far farmers have had no instructions about assistance. As a result they are closing their farms at a loss.

According to farmers, it now costs a farmer Tk 5.70 to produce an egg, but eggs have to be sold at Tk 4. A kilogram of broiler meat costs Tk 100 to produce but sells for Tk 80. Not only are prices failing to cover costs, but with various areas under lockdown, produce cannot be supplied to consumers. Most of the eggs and meat produced in Gazipur go to the capital and Narayanganj, but with coronavirus infections rising there, no one dares to go.

Nazmul Haque of Nandia Sangun village in Sreepur says he borrowed to stock 5,500 chicks, spending Tk 8.5 lakh including the shed. Just when the birds were ready for sale, the coronavirus spread in the country, and he later sold them for Tk 4 lakh, a loss of Tk 4.5 lakh. Now he is close to ruin.

Abul Hashem is in the same position. He says there are nearly fifty small farms in his area, and they are the farmers' only asset. Losing money because of the coronavirus, he too has sold his laying hens, and the money did not even cover the feed bill. Now he is empty-handed with not even food at home, and no one is standing by them.

Tota Mia of Kaoraid village says his 1,000 hens had only just started laying. After a few days of losses he sold each bird for Tk 150, though each had cost him Tk 450. He cannot afford to lose money for several months, and having lost everything he is now chasing government food aid, which he is not getting.

Abdul Matin, president of the Sreepur upazila branch of the poultry farm owners' association, says Sreepur alone has 2,400 farms, half of which have closed after the losses of the past few days, leaving several thousand people destitute. Government incentives at various times have not reached these small farmers, and he is calling for the government to act quickly to save marginal farmers.

Khandaker Mohsin, president of the Bangladesh Poultry Khamar Rokkha Jatiya Parishad, said: "Because of the coronavirus, produce cannot now be supplied to consumers. There is no way to store eggs and meat at farm level, so products have to be sold at a loss every day, and farmers are in disaster. I urge the government to act quickly to protect marginal farmers. Otherwise the poultry industry will face disaster."

Gazipur District Livestock Officer Dipak Ranjan Roy said: "The poultry industry in various parts of Gazipur contributes to the economy, but it is going through hard times because of the coronavirus. No letter has yet come with a government decision to help farmers hit by the coronavirus, but we have informed the authorities."

Reported by Shihab Khan.

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