Posts

Showing posts from September, 2021

Poultry farmers in a double bind

Poultry farmers, who've already been stricken by the epidemic is struggling to stay afloat because of the low cost of chicken that are currently being sold on the market and the sharp increase in the price of feed. Farmers who run small and medium-sized operations are in the most dire state as they are unable to find a method of recovering losses since the coronavirus outbreak started in March of 2020. Shahid Hossain Mithu, a farmer of poultry who raised more than 5,000 chickens in Jashore the state of Rajasthan, told me that he had spent Tk 165 to feed every broiler chicken which gained weight until it reached two kilograms (kg) after 36 hours after the hatching. "It costs Tk 35 to Tk 40 to buy chicks from breeders but since full grown chicken currently sell for between Tk 95 and Tk 100 per kg, I have had to count a loss of about Tk 5 to Tk 10 per bird," said the farmer. Numerous farmers claimed that the cost of feed as well as the low price of chickens wer