Poultry farms in feed crisis for hartals, blockades

Rafiqul Islam serves poultry birds home made food at his farm at Shahbazpur village in Sundarganj upazila of Gaibandha district as he cannot arrange feed from outside due to continuous road blockades. Photo: Star

Nearly 650 poultry farms in Sundarganj upazila of the district face acute feed crisis due to hartals and blockades.
Farm owners could not arrange poultry feed and send eggs or chickens to distant places for sale as road communications have remained snapped for over a month.
They said the stock of poultry feed at their farms has already exhausted and poultry birds at many farms are on the verge of dying for want of food. If blockade continues, it will be difficult to keep poultry birds alive, they added.
In the upazila, around 650 poultry farms rear around 4.50 lakh birds and supply chickens and eggs to different districts. 
“Customers from different districts collect eggs and chickens from different farms in the upazila, but now they cannot come here due to road blockades,” said Rafiqul Islam, a poultry farm owner.
Farid Mia, owner of a poultry farm in Bamondanga union of the upazila, said a poultry bird consumes 100 grams of food everyday. So, he needs 60 tonnes of poultry feed daily.
Farm owners usually collect poultry feed either from Bogra or Dhaka, which is now almost impossible, he added.
If poultry feed crisis continues, farm owners won't be able to save the birds at their respective units, said Ripon Mia, owner of Bhai Bhai Poultry Farm at Ramdev village in the upazila.
Upazila Livestock Officer Shahidul Islam said the poultry farms owners are incurring huge loss as they cannot supply eggs and chickens to different areas due to the prevailing political unrest. If the situation is not improved immediately, many of them will be compelled to shut their units, he added.