Logistical Issues Hold Back West Bengali Egg Production
WEST BENGAL, INDIA - The state's new Minister for Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Affairs has called for West Bengal to increase egg production.At a time when India is set to see an increase in egg production to about 95 billion by 2015, West Bengal, however, is unable to meet its increasing demand, according to The Statesman.
This has forced the state’s newly-assigned Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Minister, Swapan Debnath, to push for a sustained egg pool.
The minister, while inspecting the State Poultry Farm in Golapbagh complex recently, said: “When the daily requirement for eggs in the state stands at 25 million, the domestic production has left a shortage of 9.2 million.
“The state poultry farms with added intake capacities and better utilisation of resources and logistic support, as I have planned, needs to come forward and meet the target at the earliest.”
Mr Debnath added: “I have asked the Burdwan unit of State Poultry Farm to enhance its layer production from 4,000 units to 7,000 units per day.”
Dr Ardhendu Pal, assistant project officer, State Poultry Farm, told The Statesman: “We are failing to meet the demand of the local market at present. We have capacity to produce 32,000 eggs in 21 days but we cannot increase production due to dearth of adequate logistic support.”
The farm provides eggs at three rupees (INR) a piece each Tuesday and layer chicks at INR15 to the locals. The Burdwan farm deals with chicken breeds like Black Australorp (Australian origin) and Rhode Island Red.