Talking Point

Poultry is the fastest growing component of global meat production, consumption and trade, with developing and transition economies playing a leading role in the expansion. In addition to providing opportunities to increase poultry exports, rising poultry production spurs growth in global import demand for feeds and other inputs and in investment opportunities in these sectors.

In the South Asian context, assessments of the USDA  (2005) recounts India’s remarkable growth in poultry meat production, which grew about 6 percent annually during the 1980s, accelerating to 11 percent annually in the 1990s and nearly 19 percent during 1997-2002 largely due to growth in commercial poultry within states like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Tamil Nadu.

In this multi-part series the author discusses the various models for financing small holder poultry units to make the achievements sustainable. 

The institutional model: The members from different Self-Help Groups (SHGs) promoted by PRADAN, organized themselves into co-operative societies for smooth transaction of input, output and services for broiler farming. The co-operative societies have been registered under Jharkhand Self-supporting co-operative act 1996. The co-operative societies further organized into a state level federation which has been registered under the same act. The federations have further been organized into a national level organization called National Small-holder Poultry Development Trust (NSPDT) which host business verticals for quality supply of inputs to members.

Infrastructure facilities and linkages: All the producers are the members of the concerned co-opeative societies. The co-operative societies with support from the state federation procure the inputs in bulk and supply to its members. The co-operatives with the help from federation has been able to have hatchery and feed mills which supply chicks and feed to the members. The medicines and vaccines are supplied in bulk from federation. The supply chain of the inputs is in place. All the co-operative societies have well trained veterinary graduates who works as production managers. They are supported by village level paravets. They have also been trained to support the members in managing the birds.

Since the state is a huge deficit market of broiler birds, market has not been a problem so far. The marketing is being on single window basis. The co-operative societies purchase the birds and sell in the market on the basis of cash and ex farm. The members have no problem and in fact the co-operative societies protects the members from highly fluctuating broiler market.

Each member gets 7 days on job training. They are taken to the farms of the existing producers and allowed to rear the birds for a week under the supervision of expert veterinarian. The training consists of classroom as well as on farm practical trainings.

Replicability: All though from the technical and financial point of view, the model has established its viability, it is not able to replicate in the absence of credit support to the sector on account of lack of collaterals that can be offered by the poorest. Although there are enough provisions to cover such small loans without collaterals by the banks yet there is hesitation on account of lack of confidence of the financial institutions. Some bold initiative is the need of the hour.

Poultry is the fastest growing component of global meat production, consumption and trade, with developing and transition economies playing a leading role in the expansion. In addition to providing opportunities to increase poultry exports, rising poultry production spurs growth in global import demand for feeds and other inputs and in investment opportunities in these sectors.

In the South Asian context, assessments of the USDA  (2005) recounts India’s remarkable growth in poultry meat production, which grew about 6 percent annually during the 1980s, accelerating to 11 percent annually in the 1990s and nearly 19 percent during 1997-2002 largely due to growth in commercial poultry within states like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Tamil Nadu.

In this multi-part series the author discusses the various models for financing small holder poultry units to make the achievements sustainable. 

The way out:

i. Government initiated good practice: Such initiatives in tribal areas of Chhattisgarh, showcases how simple cost effective interventions – low cost protein rich feeding, de-worming, vaccination, low cost housing, egg-candling, use of bamboos as feeders and waterers aimed to strengthen household poultry production with adequate extension and support systems through creation of village facilitators (paravets.) at village/hamlet level to deliver regular, economically sustainable animal health service within the villages contributed to the improvement of poultry and farm management capabilities of tribal farmers in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh in India.

These interventions facilitated increased health awareness in beneficiaries regarding poultry and have contributed to reducing mortality leading to threefold increase in flock size, with a resultant positive effect on the livelihoods of the rural population, many of whom comprise the poorest communities in these tribal regions.

ii. Cooperative development from Madhya Pradesh: In the central plains of Madhya Pradesh, women poultry producers are learning how to beat diseases, build sheds, maintain account books and negotiate a remunerative price for their Broiler birds. Under the aegis of their cooperative, they have become entrepreneurs and successfully feed a complicated and volatile poultry market. The processes they adopted has resulted in breaking the entry barriers and become a viable enterprise.

iii. The Jharkhand poultry producers cooperative model: The small holder poultry prototype attempts to adapt the complex production technology in a small farmer’s context at the same time achieve economies of scale through collective procurement of inputs and marketing of produce. The essential elements of the small-holder poultry prototype are.

1. Decentralized production infrastructure of 400-500 birds in the backyard of the family there-by fitting it into their daily life.
2. Ensuring production efficiency with rigorous training of producers, intensive production support and quality on-call referral veterinary services.
3. Cost effectiveness with collective procurement of inputs and sale of birds to achieve economies of scale and backward and forward integration.
4. Creation of a system to address the volatile nature of market by de-linking production efficiency from enterprise efficiency and collectivization of operations involving market interface.
5. Customized financial and MIS software for decentralized operations.
6. Growing charges fashioned to create incentive for efficiency and para-vet charges linked to production parameters.
7. Capacity building to facilitate transition from wage earner to entrepreneur.
8. Participatory assessment of business performance and internalization of best practices at the individual producer level

The income potential: A typical broiler farmer of the collective is a rural woman from disadvantaged communities, hitherto, dependent for their sustenance on rain fed agriculture and wage earning. Today through systematic intervention at all the enterprise stages she has gathered skills, infrastructure, inputs and marketing arrangements for a successful home based broiler poultry unit. The minimum she requires is one cent of land (435 square-feet), either owned by her or taken on lease. She earns between Rs.12, 000-25,000 a year which works out to Rs. 60-125 a day for her 200 days of engagement. This income, available to her in a regular stream of cash flows on a continuous basis, helps her to meet the need of cash expenses and also of capital formation in the family. This income strengthens the woman to negotiate a better deal for herself within her family and the larger society. Income from the activity equivalent to 200 wage days reduces out migration and helps the family invest on existing resources most notably the arable land – homestead or otherwise; thereby further augmenting the sufficiency in the hitherto deficit household.

To be continued …