MULTAN, Jan 15: Heavy losses to chicken farmers and uncertainty prevailing in poultry industry since the bird flu crisis some three years back have rendered more than 5,000 people unemployed in five districts of south Punjab, stakeholders claim.

According to them, over 600 poultry farms have been closed in Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Layyah, Rajanpur and Muzaffargarh districts owing to persistent losses.

The number of farmers disappointed with this business is gradually increasing while more than 90 distributors have faced losses worth millions in three years in these districts.

Poultry experts apprehend that the closure of such a large number of farms may lead to meat shortage in future.

At present, surplus broiler birds are being sent to Loralai, Quetta, Qila Saifullah, Turbat, Kohlu and other remote areas of Balochistan, besides supplies to Afghanistan from Multan, Muzaffargarh, Kot Addu, DG Khan, Khanewal and Rajanpur.

Prior to the bird flu scare in January 2004, almost five million broiler birds had been reared daily in four districts of DG Khan region. Though poultry researchers had claimed that the bird flu virus was not associated with broilers and is the disease of breeders and layers, people avoided broiler meat, plunging its price.

Farmers and distributors had to sell a live broiler bird at the lowest rate of Rs5 per kg against its 10 times more production cost of Rs50.

The scare had slashed the volume of farming to half in these districts, but with the passage of time the increasing demand of broiler following high rates of mutton and beef encouraged farmers. They restored production which jumped from 2.5 million birds per month to about four million. Overproduction in 2006 and rumours of bird flu again resulted in crisis-like situation.

With an average price of a day-old chick to Rs25, the production cost of 1kg live broiler bird is Rs55, but it is being sold at Rs44 nowadays against the Rs39 rate two weeks back. Farmers are suffering an average loss of Rs12 per kg.

A survey and queries with poultry farmers and feed distributors reveal that about 600 farms have been closed in Layyah, Muzaffargarh, DG Khan and Rajanpur districts and more than two dozens feed distributors have wound up their business permanently after they faced heavy losses.

The existing crisis has left more than 3,000 farmers, workers and others jobless in these districts.

It has been learnt that supply to Balochistan has also dropped.

A poultry expert, Dr Aslam Baloch said “there is no shortage of broiler but actually slump-like situation prevails due to low rates in big poultry markets of the country.”

He, however, apprehends that such a crisis may further lead to an acute shortage of poultry meat in a few months as the investment capacity of feed distributors is declining.

It has been argued that the government should fix prices of meat and chicks keeping in view the cost of production on a weekly basis.

All Pakistan Poultry Industry chairman Mir Tahir Ali Zaidi says the sector is divided into two groups. One is doing farming on modern lines and the other is using old methods. The former is safe from losses while the latter is facing difficulties because of lack of information about vaccine, diseases and the proper time of farming.

“In Pakistan, the production cost is more than neighbouring countries, including India, Iran and China. It can be reduced after providing necessary information to farmers and introducing modern methods of farming. Fixing of prices on a weekly basis is not possible in present era of open market concept,” he said.