Pune: In the last six months, the wholesale price of maize hiked upto Rs 24 to Rs 25 per kg which is badly affecting the poultry business in the Maharashtra.
The earlier price of maize was Rs 15 to Rs 16. Maize is one of the most important ingredients in the feed of chicken. The hike in maize price has resulted in the rise of the cost of production of feed for poultry farmers and compelling them to incur losses. In the last three months, around 20 to 25 poultry farms in and around Pune have shut.
“Maize is one of the most important ingredients in the feed and eventually increases the total production cost per egg,” said Sham Bhagat, Chairman at National Eggs Co-ordination Committee (NECC), Pune.
“Earlier, the total production of eggs was around 25 lakh per day in and around Pune which is now 23 lakh. With the hike in the cost of production, poultries in and around Pune are facing losses and are collapsing. Big poultry farmers, who have good finances survived, while the small farmers with around 5,000 birds have collapsed badly.”
In the last three months, around 20 to 25 poultry farms have shut,” he added. Vijay Bhale from Parnika Farm in Nashik said, “Maize constitutes more than 50 per cent of the feed and for the production of one egg, it requires at least 130 to 140 gm of total feed. Thus, the cost of production is too high and due to major involvement of maize, it is hitting the poultry farmers hard.”
“Last year, maize production was less due to the drought which resulted in the hike in its prices. This increase has impacted the poultry industry very badly as the cost of feed has increased up to 30 per cent,” said Prasanna Pedgaonkar, General Manager at Venky’s.
Due to the increased cost of production, many layer poultry farmers (one who deals in eggs) have reduced their birds.
Kiran Abhale from Kopargaon in Ahmednagar district has also reduced the number of birds in the last five months.
“Poultry farmers in places like Ahmednagar, Sangamner, Kopargaon and Nashik are badly affected due to the increase in the cost of feed production. Due to the hike, we have reduced our birds in the last five months. I used to have one lakh birds but currently, there are only 10,000 birds,” he said.
“I have incurred a huge loss and currently, we are only able to manage the labour cost,” added Abhale.
Raju Bhosale from Yojana Poultry Pvt Ltd, who is into poultry business from the last 15 years in Wagholi, feels that due to hike in cost of feed production, small and new layers farmers have been hit badly.
“The price of maize has increased in the last six months from Rs 15 per kg to Rs 25 per kg. The cost of production per egg has increased from Rs 3 per egg to Rs 4 per egg. This has hit small farmers very badly as they were unable to get good finances to survive in the market,” he said.
Maize price also hits broiler poultry farmers
Raju Thorat, a broiler poultry farmer from Yavat village, said, “As the price of maize has increased, the feed price of per 1 kg per hen has now increased by Rs 8 per kg. Earlier, it was Rs 65 per kg per hen to Rs 73 per 1 kg. Currently, a farm gets price is around Rs 80 per kg live bird and it will decrease in coming days by around Rs 5 as the demand will decrease due to Shravan months. Since it is a perishable item, we cannot keep a hen for more than 2 to 3 days. Hence, whatever price we get, we sell it for that price due to which we incur losses.”
