With a shortage of staff and dilapidated infrastructure, the government poultry breeding and development farm at Jamalganj in Joypurhat is limping along.

Once a pioneer for the country's poultry industry, the farm's production capacity has now hit rock bottom.

The farm has 20 approved posts but only seven people working, and the authorities say there are no workers at all to work in the poultry sheds.

A visit found part of the farm covered in weeds and the boundary wall broken in several places. Of the 12 sheds, four have damaged roofs and have been abandoned for a long time. The other eight are in use, but they too are in a risky state; in places bamboo poles have been put up to stop the roofs collapsing.

The farm authorities said normal work is being disrupted by the shortage of workers and staff. A modern hatchery was set up here in 2008, but the expected production is not being achieved. The farm's target is to rear 20,000 chicks and 2,000 layer hens, but it currently has only 2,000 chicks and 1,800 layers. It produces only 2 lakh chicks a year for supply to farmers, which is very little compared with demand.

Local farmer Arif Iftekhar Ahammed Rana said: "We used to get good-quality chicks and technical advice from here. But now, because of its poor state, we don't get the same benefits. If it is repaired quickly, farmers will benefit again."

Dr Md Wali-ul-Islam, deputy director of the Joypurhat government poultry breeding and development farm, acknowledged the staff shortage. "Against 20 approved posts, only seven people are working. At present there are no workers for the sheds. With four sheds abandoned for a long time, production capacity has also fallen. We are having to run the farm with these two crises, infrastructure and staff. We have sent requests several times to higher authorities for repairs to the dilapidated sheds and for recruitment. Repair work will start once funds are allocated."

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