Prospects of Poultry Farming in Pakistan

• Muhammad Rasheed
• Asif Maqbool 
• Naeem Qasim           

Every community in the world is responsible to provide its residents adequate food and guarantee them freedom from hunger and malnutrition. It becomes especially important when about 15-20% of the world population is still unable to obtain sufficient food to meet minimum nutritional requirements for a healthy and productive life. The poor nutritional status is prevalent due to lack of sufficient energy and protein in the food.

A balanced diet is essential for good health, vigour and productive capacity of the people. Protein plays an important role in the formation of balanced human diet. There are mainly two origins of proteins i.e. animal and plant. The human diet in Pakistan is deficient with respect to proteins of animal origin. At present 66% Pakistani’s are deficient in protein. The requirement of protein is 102.7 g per head per day while at use available protein is 69.61 g per head per day. The gap in requirement of protein is 33.09 g per head per day. The main source of animal protein in Pakistan is beef, mutton, milk, poultry meat and eggs respectively.

In developing countries like Pakistan where the population is growing at a faster rate, the gap in production of food especially of animal origin is widening year after year. In the wake of animal health standards, the problem of an acute animal source protein shortage seems still more grave and distressing especially when it is compared with the protein intake of various developed countries like U.S.A., Canada, Germany, France, Japan and U.K., where consumption of protein is 79-95 g per capita per day in their daily diet and of which 46-65 g. is protein of vegetable origin and the rest of animal origin.

 The food and nutrition dilemma demands a special attention to overcome the existing deficiencies in the food and nutritional needs of the population, with particular reference to protein deficiency and availability from animal source.

Out of various sources to overcome the animal protein gap, poultry meat seems to offer much better prospect in this respect. It is capable of providing protein in terms of quality and can narrow down the animal protein supply gap in minimum possible time as compared to other sources of animal protein.

Poultry has still remained a neglected and unimportant sideline of our agricultural industry. Productivity of local birds in terms of eggs or returns has been low and was not considered as a paying enterprise. Principally it was raised as stray birds on which particularly no cash outlay had been involved.

Until 1964 poultry production was a cottage industry in Pakistan. The management and production on modern scientific lines was not known and disease control measures were also not sufficient. In 1964, PIA shaver laid the foundation of commercial poultry production by introducing new and improved breeds of layers and broilers and by Lever Brothers with production of poultry feed on modern lines. The Govt. on her part, exempted this industry from income tax and sales tax, allowed export of table eggs, day old chicks and broiler on subsidized rates.

Poultry production now has emerged as a good substitute of beef and mutton. Its importance can be judged from the fact almost every family in rural areas and every fifth family in urban areas are associated with poultry production activities in one way or the other.

The Production of commercial poultry and poultry products for the year 2000-01 to 2003-04.

Production	Units	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Day old chicks	Million no’s	319.7	334.3	350.5	356.0
Layers	Million no’s	18.1	18.4	19.3	22.1
Broilers	Million no’s	253.3	264.4	227.2	280.1
Breeding stock	Million no’s	6.2	6.2	6.5	6.5
Poultry meat	000 tones	256.1	266.8	279.5	303.0
Eggs	Million no’s	4348.0	4423.0	4632.0	4850.0

Source: Ministry of food, Agriculture & Livestock ( Livestock wing), Islamabad.

This table shows that poultry industry is developing in our country in spite of problems this industry is facing.  

However along with this expansion, the poultry raisers cry for low economic returns for their poultry products and consumers in street cry for high cost of poultry products which is  due to high marketing margin in this industry. The poultry industry faces problems like the incidence of diseases, substandard and costly feed and inefficient marketing system. In all stages of development, there is a need of improving the efficiency and lowering the cost of distribution in existing system. For the achievement of this goal, there is a need to introduce the least expensive marketing system in the country so that the producers would be able to sell their produce at reasonable price and consumers to buy their needs at minimum cost. If we want to survive in post-WTO scenario then we should give emphasis on quality and price. In a competitive environment only those products will be accepted by consumers which are of good quality and are also available at reasonable price. Therefore emphasis should be given on improving the quality and standard of the poultry products.

 Causes of losses in case of birds are death of birds due to diseases and poor handling. Grading is largely ignored at all levels in egg trade because of extra cost required for grading. Transportation is the most important component of marketing system. In economic sense, transportation means the moving of goods from surplus production areas to deficient areas. For marketing of eggs and birds the commission agents and retailers use various means of transportation to take produce to the market. Bicycle, motorcycle, wagons and donkey carts are being used for transporting poultry products. The higher losses during transportation are due to longer distance, bumpy roads and lack of modern packing techniques.

             Poultry farmers are the main life of the poultry industry but they don’t get fair returns out of their production. They put a lot of effort in increasing and developing their business but the commission agents usually get the produce from them at least cost and earn a lot of profit by selling at a higher price.  Poultry farmers should do their job both as producer as well as commission agents. So,  they can earn more profit out of their business.

            In order to improve the present marketing system of poultry, following suggestions are expected to go a long way in removing these complaints.

•  In order to curtail breakage losses, packing and distribution system should be modernized
•  Government should take immediate steps to improve the roads, for timely and quickly delivery of produce.
•  Feed and medicines are the main inputs in poultry industry. In order to enhance its economic viability and to make it more rewarding, the prices of feed and medicines should be kept in reasonable limits.
•  In order to stabilize and to maintain quality prices, poultry coordination boards should be established at Federal as well as Provincial level.
•  Grading at farm level is all together lacking so the high quality of eggs is not promoted at a price premium. So practice of grading at producer’s level would be encouraged and price information on the basis of grades and standards should be regularly collected and disseminated through T.V, press and through other means.
•  In adequate health facilities are one of the major constraints in poultry production. It is due to viral, bacterial infection and parasitic infestation. It is, therefore, suggested that a long run vaccination and deworming campaign policy should be started at national level. 
•  Government should construct veterinary laboratory for drug residue testing in the poultry products. This will ensure quality in exported products. 
•  Steps should be taken to improve sanitary and hygienic conditions of birds casing processing units in the country.