Due to the rapidly increasing cost of poultry feed, it has become very difficult for the poultry farmers Ajmer in Rajasthan to run their business and they are facing severe losses, according to New Kerala.

Poultry farmers complain that the feed cost has increased two to three times in the past three to four months while the price of eggs have not increased in that ratio.

According to farmers, production cost per egg in today's scenario amounts to one and a half rupee while it is sold for less than one rupee in the wholesale market.

"Inflation has affected our business in a big way. The poultry feed has become very costly. The price has increased two to three times. The price of poultry products has increased only by 25 per cent whereas the price of poultry feed has increased by 50 per cent. The poultry business is going through tough times," said Chandra Prakash, owner of Indra Poultry Farm.

Poultry farmers at Ajmer, one of the country's biggest egg production centre, have demanded that government should subsidize poultry feed.

In Ajmer, there are 20,000 families dependent on poultry. On an average, Ajmer produces 21,0000 eggs per day from 24,0000 birds.

Until recently, Ajmer stood in second place behind Barwala town in Punjab in the ranking of leading egg production centres in northern India. Now, inflation has severely affected more than 300 poultry farms in the area.

According the National Egg Coordination Committee report, more than 150 poultry farms have been shut down in Ajmer and thousands of people have become unemployed in the past year.