Pipili: The poultry farmers of Pipili in Puri district of Odisha are in distress. Bird flu spread in this area a few months back. Hence, the culling campaign was undertaken. The farms from which the chicken was killed was sealed for three months and chicken farming was stopped. Now these poultry farmers are in distress.
After bird flu was reported in this area culling was done as a precautionary measure to check the spread of the disease. Accordingly, chicken farming was stopped within a kilometer of the affected area. In fact, chicken farming was stopped in the entire Pipili area for 3 months.
As a result, everyone from farmers to traders has been affected. Will chicken farming return after the three-month deadline? Or will there be an impact on farming?
Chicken farming is done in large quantities in Pipili of Puri district. In this area many educated youths have become self-reliant by farming chickens.
Some people are running poultry here on the basis of Chief Minister’s agricultural enterprise scheme while some others are running poultry farming at their own initiative.
They run their families with this trade. However, after loss of business due to spread of bird flu now they are in distress.
Poultry farming in this area suffered heavily due to cyclone Fani that hit the state in 2019. With the support of the then government, the farmers revived their business. But this year’s bird flu has shaken their financial backbone again.
Bird flu had been witnessed in the chicken farm of Narendra Das of Abalpur village under Teishpur panchayat. Dr. Jyoti Ranjan Mishra and Dr. Jagdish Mohanty, on behalf of the Animal Disease Research Center in Nakhara of Cuttack, collected the chicken’s blood sample, urine and sputum etc. and took the dead chicken with them. It was sent to Vellore for testing. The sample was tested positive. It was found to be bird flu. This created fear in the minds of the farmers. At that time, the farmers insisted that they would not allow culling unless the government provided compensation.
Soon Bird flu spread to other blocks. After Pipili, it started spreading to Nimapada, Delang and Kanas blocks. A culling campaign was started with the help of the RRT team from all the chicken farms within a kilometer of the bird flu infected farm. The RRT team carried out the culling campaign wearing PP kits after duly counting the chickens in the farms. Later, the chicken farms were cleaned and sealed for three months. Accordingly, the poultry farmers in Puri district suffered due to the above precautionary steps.
The Odisha Poultry Development Forum raised voice for the financial loss of the poultry farmers. There were also frequent protests. The forum has demanded compensation for the poultry farmers affected by bird flu. They have argued that they should be compensated from the Govt funds from where compensation is given during natural disasters.
In this regard the forum approached Puri District Collector, the Animal Husbandry Department Minister, the Chief Minister, and the Director of the Animal Husbandry Department to compensate them. 200 poultry farmers in Pipili, 100 in Delang, 75 in Satyabadi, 45 in Nimpara, 5 in Kanas and 25 in Puri Sadar Block have been affected by bird flu. These affected farmers have demanded assistance from the government.
Not only has bird flu affected the poultry farmers, but the traders have also been affected for other reasons. Farmers were provided with chicken manure, feed and all farm inputs for poultry farming. After the chickens were killed due to bird flu, the state government sent the relief to the chicken farmers’ bank accounts. However, the traders who had supplied them with chickpeas and feed, after they were destroyed, did not receive any money as relief from the state government. As a result, they suffered a lot, said the chicken integrators.
Culling executed in a total of 201 farms of Pipili, Satyabadi, Nimpara, Delang, Kanas and Puri Sadar blocks of Puri district. A total of 49,680 chickens were killed. Similarly, 169 quintals of 10 kg feed were destroyed. An assistance of Rs 21 lakh 20 thousand 292 was provided in this regard, said Puri district chief veterinary officer.
Report: Dibakar Sarangi from Pipili
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