POULTRY INDUSTRY IN INDIA

Indian poultry industry is one of the fastest growing segments of agricultural sector
today in India. The production of eggs and broilers are rising at a rate of 8-10 %
per annum. India is the third-largest egg producer in the world after China and the
USA and the fourth-largest chicken producer in the world after China, Brazil and
the USA. In India, the per capita consumption of eggs has gone up from 30 eggs
per annum to 68 eggs per annum, and that of chicken from 400 gms per annum, to
2.5 kg per annum in the last 5 years. The Poultry Industry is contributing about
Rs.70, 000/- crores to the national GDP and providing employment to more than 4
million people either directly or indirectly. About 2-2.5 million tons of poultry
litter, a valuable organic fertilizer, is produced as a byproduct every year. The
poultry industry is concentrated in certain pockets of the country. The State of
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu lead the country followed by
Maharashtra, Punjab and West Bengal.
The popularity of poultry meat is on the rise during the last two decades. It is
presently accounting for about 45% of the total meat consumed and is the most
popular meat from any single livestock species. Chicken dominates the poultry
production in India with nearly 95% of the total egg production and the rest is
contributed by ducks and others (DADF, 2014). Majority of ducks are found in
certain states on the eastern and southern coast like West Bengal, Assam, Orissa,
Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu etc. Other species like turkeys, guinea fowls,
ostriches, emus etc. are reared only in small numbers in areas having specific
market demand. India is the home for many breeds of native chicken like Aseel,
Kadak Nath, Tellicherry, Haringhata Black, Nicobari, Danki etc., which are still
popular among the rural and tribal areas for back yard/ free range farming
(Chatterjee and Haunshi, 2014). For the commercial farming, high yielding crosses
developed and supplied by the private sector like Babcock, Bovans (egg type) and
Cobb, Ross, Hubbard (meat type) are being used. The crosses developed under the
public sector like Krishilayer, Krishibro (multicolored broiler etc.) are popular in
certain areas. Poultry exports are mostly to Maldives and Oman. Indian poultry
meat products have good markets in Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
Availability of eggs is highly non-uniform in different parts of the country
primarily due to wide variation in the production levels. Much of the eggs
produced are consumed by the urban population while the rural and tribal areas
have little access to the eggs and meat produced from the industrial sources and the
availability is very low. In spite of rapid growth, the poultry industry suffered
many setbacks in recent times due to rising cost of feed, emergence of new or
reemerging of existing diseases, fluctuating market price of egg and broilers, etc.
which need to be addressed to make the poultry sector as a sustainable enterprise.
Indian poultry industry has gone a paradigm shift in structure and operation. A
very significant feature of India’s poultry industry is its transformation from a
mere backyard activity into a major commercial activity in just about four decades
which seems to be really fast. This kind of transformation has involved sizable
investment in breeding, hatching, rearing, and processing. Indian farmers have
moved from rearing non-descript birds to today’s rearing hybrids such as Hyaline,
Shaver, and Babcock which ensure faster growth, good livability, and excellent
feed conversion and high profit to rearers.
BACKGROUND OF POULTRY INDUSTRY IN INDIA
India has gifted the world the species Red jungle and Silver jungle fowls, out of
whose progenies, domesticated and crossbreed have emerged the "Pure lines" of
today. The history of poultry in India is about 5000 years old. But the strange
paradox of this country is that although it introduced poultry to the world it itself
remained indifferent to it for a long time. The main factor was religious taboo for
poultry products in many Indian communities. But the total credit for developing
the poultry in this country should go to the Christian Missionary Organization and
some British people who brought some superior exotic breeds in beginning of 20th
century. In 1950 the production of egg was only 1.8 billion eggs, in 1995 it was 27
billion eggs and in 2005 it is 42 billion eggs. The poultry industry can be classified
into broiler industry and layer industry. Late Dr.B.V.Rao, called “Father of
Modern Poultry in India”.Dr.B.V.Rao was instrumental in setting up the National
Egg Coordination Committee in 1982,it is a charitable trust with 24 zones and 118
local committees has about 25,000 farmers as its members spread out all over India
helping the layer farmers obtain reasonable, remunerative, viable price for eggs.
Broiler industry is concerned with poultry meat and layer industry is concerned
with egg production. BROMARK (Broiler marketing Cooperative Society):
Bromark, also a brainchild of late Dr.B.V.Rao is an all India Broiler Farmers' Body
registered under the Multi State Cooperative Societies Act in 1994. The objective
of the Bromark is to ensure the gap between producers price and consumer price is
reduced and promote the consumption of chicken meat by advertising on its
nutritive value

A modest beginning towards commercial poultry farming was made during the
First Five Year Plan (1951-55) in which Rs. 2.5 crore was spent on poultry
development. Thirty three extension centres were established for supply of
improved breeds of chicken to interested farmers. During the second Five Year
Plan (1956-60), projects were initiated to encourage both backyard poultry farming
in rural areas and the commercial poultry farming in areas. Five regional poultry
breeding farms were established to acclimatize the genet superior stocks imported
from foreign countries. As a result of these. Poultry feed equipment industries also
started developing. A favorable ground, thus, was laid to launch a bigger poultry
plan during the third Five Year Plan. Approximately Rs. 2.8 crore was spent on
poultry development during the Second Five Year Plan. In the third Five Year
Plan, Rs. 8 crore was allocated for poultry programmes, but only Rs. 4.5 crore was
spent. Other national and international agencies like United States Agency
International Development, Applied Nutrition Programme, Freedom from
Campaign, United Nations Development Programme also helped to boost up the
poultry development programmes in India. As a result, four franchise hatcheries
with foreign collaboration were set up. About 10,000 pure line chicks were
imported from Australia Large scale poultry processing plants were set up in Pune
and Chandigarh. All these developments led to a rapid increase in number of
commercial poultry farms with improved stock. During the Fourth Five Year Plan,
major emphasis was laid on the expansion of poultry marketing facilities. Further,
the Government of India permitted private sector to establish commercial
hatcheries during this plan
Agricultural Universities also played an important role by providing well trained
personnel for poultry extension and research work during this period. Many
universities created a full-fledged department of poultry science. These universities
got busy in solving many practical problems of the industry through research.
Farmers training also became one of the basic responsibilities of these
departments.
INDIAN POULTRY INDUSTRY AT A GLANCE 2017-2018
Industry overview
The total broiler market size in India is estimated at 4.2 million tons (carcass
weight), translating into volume growth of 7% year-on-year during year 2017-18.
The industry's profitability remained stable in FY2018 (fiscal year), driven by low
soymeal prices and remunerative broiler and table egg realisations throughout the
year.
Broiler prices
The average farm gate broiler realizations for FY2018 at Rs. 75/kg are better than
Rs. 70/kg in FY2017 while average broiler production costs at Rs. 60/kg in
FY2018 is almost 6-7% lesser than FY2017 levels given stable soymeal prices in
FY2018, especially during 9m FY 2018 post a sharp decline in FY2017
Egg Production
The domestic table egg production for 2017-2018 is 84 billion eggs translating to a
per capita egg consumption of 63 egg p.a. and market size of Rs. 420 billion. As
against the targeted production of 87.05 Billions of eggs during 2017, the total
estimated production in two seasons, summer and rainy, is 55.11 Billion showing
an achievement of 63 31 %. The production of egg is largely contributed by
commercial poultry farms with nearly 75 75% and remaining production is from
household/backyard poultry. The first five highest egg producing States are Tamil
Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and West Bengal & Haryana during the Rainy
Season.
Meat production
As per ICRA's estimate, per capita meat consumption is around 3.6 kg p.a. which
puts total broiler meat market size at Rs. 730 billion in terms of retail price. As
against the targeted production of 7.37 Million Tonnes during 2017, the total
estimated production in two seasons, summer and rainy, is 4.67 Million Tonnes
showing an achievement of 63.28%. Nearly, 47.86 % of the meat production is
contributed by poultry. The first five highest Meat producing States are Uttar
Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, & Telangana.
** (ICRA) is an Indian independent and professional investment information and
credit rating agency
The key stakeholders in the Indian poultry market are as follows.
a) Sneha Foods Limited, Telangana
b) Srinivasa Hatcheries (SH Group), Telangana
c) Balaji Hatcheries, Andhra Pradesh
d) V S N Hatcheries, Andhra Pradesh
e) Mulpuri Group, Andhra Pradesh
f) Venky’s (V H Group), Maharashtra
g) Suguna Foods, Tamil Nadu
h) R M Group, Haryana.
i) Skylark Foods, Haryana
j) Komarla Group, Karnataka
k) I B Group, Chhattisgarh
l) Bharati Poultry, West Bengal

MAJOR CONSTRAINTS OF POULTRY INDUSTRY IN INDIA

Although India has made a major breakthrough in poultry production during last
25 years, yet the problems facing this industry are many and diverse. Some of the
major problems are;
 Availability of quality chicks
The quality chicks can be made available either by improved breeding of
indigenous germplasm or by importing the improved stock from developed
countries. India is following both approaches. However, the selective breeding can
only be undertaken if the native stock possess a moderate to high genetic potential
for improved performance
The other type of Programme to make available the quality stock is importing the
improved strains when the local stock is generally poor. This type of Programme is
being followed in India. Quality birds were made available to farmers by importing
hybrid birds through foreign collaboration. But now efforts are being made to
evolve the improved strains of birds suitable for the need of the country through
research. This is being done primarily to get rid of foreign dependence for birds as
national policy and secondly to evolve the birds suited to the local agro-climatic
conditions
All India Coordinated Research Project on Poultry Breeding aimed to develop
strains of egg and meat type chickens, comparable to international standards in
production and acceptable to industry in light of prevailing agro-climatic
conditions. Poultry breeding programmes with similar also got underway almost
during the same time at Central Breeding Farms, State Governor Poultry Farms
and Agricultural Universities. They all aim at the development of commercial
hybrid chicks. But so far indigenous germplasm has not been fully exploited.
With mushrooming of private hatcheries and no mandatory quality control over
chick production, many poor quality checks are delivered to the farmers. No
serious thought been given to the development of the chicks resistant to disease
and adapted to different climatic zones or management systems
  Shortage of quality feed
The increasing cost of feed and frequently the inferior quality of feed stuffs
compounded feed have serious detrimental effects on poultry production in the
region. These problems are made worse by inadequate domestic feed resources and
feed analytical services the proliferation of small units manufacturing feed and
feed supplements and the lack of statutory control over feed quality. Shortage of
maize as a source of energy for feeding poultry may be a serious caused concern.
Maize is also finding its use in many industrial uses causing undue pressure poultry
industry. Almost all feed ingredients going for poultry feed are extracted or deoiled
like soybean extraction, deoiled rice polish, deoiled G.N. cake etc. Admixture of
the ingredients resulting in poultry ration is deficient in energy. Feed grade lard is
an excellent source of energy in poultry ration and it is available in some
developed countries at very reasonable price. Import of lard for feeding poultry
should be seriously considered.
 Disorganised marketing
Marketing of poultry products is the most serious problem confronting the
industry. It is still in the hand of private traders who exploit it maximum to their
advantage. The sufferers are both consumers and producers. The prices of poultry
products are determined by the middlemen operating in the important metropolitan
markets. These prices are based on the demand and supply of eggs and meat
without any regards to cost of production. No efforts are made to increase the
demand or to regulate the supply. As a result of such practice farmers suffered a lot
in the past. Now a number of states have set up cooperative marketing federations
who have been charged with responsibilities of organising marketing of poultry
products. The National Egg Coordination Committee has been set up by the
farmers to ensure satisfactory floor prices to producers, provide inputs to increase
production and undertake extension work, consumer education and export
marketing of poultry product. Prices declared by the NECC is accepted allover the
country. NECC has also formed a company-Agro Corpex India Ltd: for carrying
on domestic egg trading as well as export of eggs.
 Inadequate health cover
The confidence of poultry farmers has been eroded in sound health cover because
they have suffered considerable economic loss due to emerging diseases and often
by failure of vaccination Programme, breakdown in immunity and lack of adequate
diagnostic facility and control services . A fresh look needs to be given to restore
confidence.
 High feed costs
 Inclusion of antibiotics in poultry feed: Issues surrounding inclusion of antibiotics
in poultry feed and also the use of alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters.
 Poultry Safety and welfare-related issues:
Safety of poultry products for human consumption. Poultry welfare-related issues
such as banning the use of conventional cages at layer farms.
 Nutrition-related environmental issues:
Nutrition-related environmental issues (excretion of nutrients such as nitrogen and
phosphorus in the manure).
 Issues related to water:
Sevier Issue related to water in terms of both quality and quantity.
 Inadequate investments:
Developing efficient distribution system with large investments required in cold
chain infrastructure and increasing market acceptability of frozen chicken are
going to be the key industry drivers in long term
 Increased hatchability:
Farmers in the country have moved from rearing country birds in the past to
rearing hybrids which ensure faster growth of chicks, higher eggs per bird,
increased hatchability, low mortality rates, excellent feed conversion and
consequently sustainable profits
 Limited Access to the Core Markets:
It is all because of the limited access to the worldwide markets which is barrier in
the way of these farmers. As they get little return on what they sale, so they never
try to improve the quality of the poultry products and farms. Various significant
improvements can be made in these production systems through the use and
implementation of the most advanced and scientific practices.
 Water, Electricity and Disease Control issues:
The sector now faces a number of issues and difficulties including water, food,
electricity and other major problems. In addition to the challenges posed by the
various pathogenic diseases, the farmers also face the problem for low capital.
Help from the side of the government and other investment institutions, is all that
is needed by them for ensuring health growth and development conditions for the
domesticated animals.
References
1). Poultry production third edition by R.A.Singh.
2). Poultry production third edition by B panda and Mohapathra

3). An overview of poultry production in India, R.N. Chatterjee* and

U.Rajkumar. Indian J. Anim. Hlth. (2015), 54(2): 89-108
4). https://www.indianmirror.com/indian-industries/2018/poultry-2018.html

Submitted by
Divya sasi
2015-20-015