Nine poultry farmers commit suicide in flu-hit India
12 April 2006 10:31:02 GMT
Nine poultry farmers in India have killed themselves and more are facing a grim future after bird flu slashed demand for chicken meat, an industry group said on Wednesday.
India has culled hundreds of thousands of birds to contain several outbreaks of the H5N1 avian flu virus in poultry since February, but the disease has continued to resurface, mostly in Maharashtra. The scare has decimated the country's $7.8 billion poultry industry, which says losses in the past two months have reached $2.2 billion.
There were 123,000 poultry farmers in India and about 70 percent of them were in a "dire situation". The Indian government and the poultry industry have been running awareness campaigns to encourage people to eat chicken and eggs, but there has been little response from the public.
Chicken is a staple for meat-eaters in India, where beef and pork are rarely eaten either for religious reasons or quality concerns. The poultry industry says the wholesale price of chicken had fallen to about four rupees (9 U.S. cents) a kg. Before bird flu, wholesale prices were about 20 rupees, or about 50 cents, a kg.
Authorities have announced financial assistance for the farmers whose birds are being culled, but industry officials say the compensation is not enough. What about those whose birds are not being culled but who aren't able to sell their stocks?.
India's central bank has announced some relief for the poultry industry, including allowing a one-time reduction of 4 percentage points on bank loans and a moratorium of one year on loan repayments.
12 April 2006 10:31:02 GMT
Nine poultry farmers in India have killed themselves and more are facing a grim future after bird flu slashed demand for chicken meat, an industry group said on Wednesday.
India has culled hundreds of thousands of birds to contain several outbreaks of the H5N1 avian flu virus in poultry since February, but the disease has continued to resurface, mostly in Maharashtra. The scare has decimated the country's $7.8 billion poultry industry, which says losses in the past two months have reached $2.2 billion.
There were 123,000 poultry farmers in India and about 70 percent of them were in a "dire situation". The Indian government and the poultry industry have been running awareness campaigns to encourage people to eat chicken and eggs, but there has been little response from the public.
Chicken is a staple for meat-eaters in India, where beef and pork are rarely eaten either for religious reasons or quality concerns. The poultry industry says the wholesale price of chicken had fallen to about four rupees (9 U.S. cents) a kg. Before bird flu, wholesale prices were about 20 rupees, or about 50 cents, a kg.
Authorities have announced financial assistance for the farmers whose birds are being culled, but industry officials say the compensation is not enough. What about those whose birds are not being culled but who aren't able to sell their stocks?.
India's central bank has announced some relief for the poultry industry, including allowing a one-time reduction of 4 percentage points on bank loans and a moratorium of one year on loan repayments.
