The quality standard of poultry products in India can be further improved by adopting latest technology and maintaining hygienic conditions in the poultry farms With markets reviving post-recession, the poultry industry is also witnessing a boom this year. Moreover, worldwide expansion of the poultry industry has boosted profit margins of players engaged in the industry.
Rising demand for poultry meat
Poultry meat is widely consumed by non-vegetarians. Consumers find chicken cheaper than red meat such as mutton or beef. It is also considered as more nutritious as the cholesterol level is low. Therefore, people suffering from obesityorheart diseases can consume chicken owing to its high nutritional value.
Moreover, there has been an increase in chicken consumption among youngsters. Consumers, especially the youth, tend to survive on fast food joints and restaurants. Therefore, the demand of chicken dishes such as drums of heaven, chicken tandoori, chicken rolls, among others has become very popular among the youth.
 Measures to boost industry further
According to Uday Singh, director of Vijay Raj Poultry Equipment Pvt Ltd, a leading poultry equipment manufacturer in Hyderabad, “Those engaged in poultry farming should adopt modern techniques to ensure hygienic conditions instead of following conventional methods of maintaining poultry farms. Therefore, there is a need to adopt latest equipment and technology that would improve productivity as well as quality standard of poultry in the country.”
Mr Singh further provided some very meaningful insights. He said that poultry farms should adopt automatic pan feeding and nipple drinking systems for broilers. The new equipment will help the broilers to drink water separately instead of drinking water from the same place. This will prevent birds from getting infected through communicable diseases like bird flu. Manure removal system should be adopted in order to remove ammonia that is excreted by the birds leading to unhygienic conditions. Regular vaccine doses should be given to birds in order to prevent them from being infected by germs.
Companies such as Godrej Agrovet Limited and Real Chicken have been monitoring poultry food products with the aid of independent agencies. However, the government should ensure that quality tests are conducted in various poultry farms in order to prevent consumers from purchasing low quality or diseased poultry products.
While speaking to a FoodProcessing360 correspondent, Harish Garware, secretary of Indian poultry Equipment Manufacture’s Association (IPEMA), based in Pune, said, “The poultry industry is extremely labourer-intensive. However, due to harsh conditions in the poultry farms, most labourers refuse to work. As a result, labourers have been demanding high wages, which has led to an increase in the production cost. Therefore, mechanisation is the only alternative that will lower the dependency on labourers as well as bolster productivity of poultry products.”
Road ahead
The livestock industry, especially poultry, can survive and grow only when all the segments within the industry are healthy. In that sense, India has achieved remarkable growth and stability. Further, improvement will be in terms of post-harvest hygiene, which should be maintained from processing till the time poultry products are transported to the market.
By undertaking proper measures to control prices of maize within the country, by stopping export when crop fails in any year or allowing timely import of the commodity will benefit the poultry industry.
The government should also undertake initiatives of setting up modern hygienic poultry processing plants and cold chains across the country to boost the poultry industry.
Sabrina Mitchell |
