Marginal poultry farmers call for establishing poultry board

Blaming the big corporate institutions for the uncontrollable hike in the price of broiler chicken and eggs in the country's market, marginal poultry farmers have urged the government to form a poultry board and fix the fair price of poultry products.

Marginal poultry farmers’ organisation Bangladesh Poultry Association made the call at a press conference on Sunday at Dhaka Reporter's Unity (DRU). They also implored the government to inquire into the closure of marginal farms and take proper action.

The association’s President Sumon Hawlader claimed that the big corporations are controlling the market of broiler chicken and eggs.

“The price of poultry feed keeps going up time after time. But farmers are not getting fair prices for their products, making survival difficult for the marginal farmers. Already many small farmers have closed up their farms,” he said.

In 2009, there were 1,60,000 farms in the country which produced chickens and eggs. By FY 2021-22, the number of farms has dwindled to almost half of that.

Ilyas Khandkar, general secretary of the organization, said that the “Large companies spend Tk 25-30 behind and sold for Tk 40 rupees. Farmers are not able to raise chickens at such a rate and as such, cannot compete with the companies,” said the organisation’s General Secretary Ilias Khandker.

Aside from calling for a poultry board, several more demands were made by the organization at the press conference. They include easing the way for marginal farmers to obtain livestock licenses, trade licenses or other business certificates, arranging bank loans on easy terms for farmers, investigating the reasons for farm closures, bringing farmers under insurance, and setting up cold storage for storing eggs.

Previously, Bangladesh Dairy Farmers Association made the call for the formation of a dairy board. However, that claim has been pending in the Ministry of Fisheries And livestock for a long time. Those concerned said that the demand was made due to various problems including not getting the price according to the production cost of milk.