INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY AND PRACTICES TRANSFORMING INDIA’S POULTRY FARMING SECTOR
Poultry farming is known widely all over the country, especially since it is considered a source of income for Indian farmers. Poultry farming is a form of animal husbandry that raise domesticated birds such as chicken, duck, turkeys, and geese to produce meat or egg for food. This sector consists of many different levels of production, including breeding farms, hatcheries, feed factories, broiler and layer farms, and processing plants. Likewise, there are sub-units such as chicken, quail, duck, turkey, guinea fowl, and goose in terms of species in the sector. Over recent decades the poultry industry has made tremendous adjustments to meet the increasing demand for inexpensive and safe supply of meat and eggs. This growth has been accompanied by structural changes within the sector, characterized by the emergence and growth of “land-independent” (industrial) farming establishments, and the intensification and concentration of poultry operations. Pressure to lower production costs and increase supply has led to more efficient operations, made possible through the shift to larger, specialized and more integrated facilities, and through improvements in the use of animal genetics, optimized nutrition and new production technologies. The driving forces behind structural change in poultry production are no different than those that affect other livestock commodities: market pull, innovation and economies of scale. Innovation and economies of size that characterize the livestock sector have also served to separate animal production from crop production. Large, specialized facilities today focus on producing animals, and purchase most of their feed. This often means that there is limited access to land on which to spread manure. By the end of this decade, globally, poultry meat is expected to represent 41 percent of all the protein from meat sources, according to the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2030. The Indian poultry industry is poised to benefit from the ongoing changes in lifestyles in general and eating habits in particular.
The progress in all sectors of poultry is due to the advancement of technologies in the management, nutrition and healthcare systems. Over the years, the successors of farmers now are highly qualified and have double degrees in technical/engineering and even medical and veterinary professions. The poultry industry is currently dominated by knowledgeable and educated individuals or groups who have a deep understanding of the sector. These are not only innovators but also have an open mind to accept and adopt any innovation that is useful in modern poultry farming. The new farming systems are called “Smart farms, Automated farms, Mechanized farms and Digital farms. The year 2020 was a critical year, COVID-19 posed numerous challenges for the poultry industry, from worker shortages to interruptions throughout the supply chain.
These new technologies helped the industry to solve these issues and look forward to future opportunities to thrive and succeed:
- 3D cameras could capture precision broiler weights.
- MRI technology can help identify which eggs are fertile.
- 24/7 feedback loops could improve poultry flock outcomes.
- In-line poultry chilling could be improved using kinematics.
- Preventing antibiotic resistance in poultry using peptides.
- Digital technologies set to simplify poultry data analysis.
- Hyperspectral imaging could help find poultry meat defects.
- Machine vision can detect broiler floor distribution.
- Digitalization can optimize poultry productivity planning.
- Healthy chicks establish adult poultry microbiome quickly
- In poultry, sensors can be used to estimate body weights and measure flock uniformity.
- Sensors can help streamline the data collection process for both birds and workers, resulting in precision poultry production.
- The integration of wireless sensors and GPRS network to control and automatically monitor environmental parameters in a poultry farm
- Robotic technology can encourage broiler breeders and layer hens to move around the house, reducing the incidence of floor eggs and stimulating fertility, improving bird health and welfare and reducing the amount of labour required.
- Artificial intelligence, when applied to broiler and egg production, may not only improve efficiency but help producers address the challenges. There is a strong consensus regarding the significant impact of Artificial Intelligence in the poultry industry.
- Poultry System Simulation Model (PYSSM): Simulates the water, energy, wastewater and labour utilization of a poultry processing plant.
- Simple Vet Regulatory Compliance Data Management applies Blockchain technology to veterinary records to maintain transparency and traceability while also providing analytics to evaluate the efficacy of treatments.
- Gene Editing Technology (egg XYT CRISPR) Inserts a bio-marker in the DNA of male chicks at the parent stock level to create an optical signature in embryos detectable at the breeding/hatching operation. Upon scanning of incoming eggs, those with male embryos are diverted to food production.
- Nanotechnology plays a pivotal role in the mechanism of tracking virus entry. The single virus tracking technology (SVT) makes it possible to track the different stages of a single virus in its life cycle.
- One of the most effective ways of improving poultry flock performance is scientific breeding for desired traits. Use of QTLs for selection of sire and dam for next generation.
- With the help of transgenesis, new transgenic feed is formed which contains more quantity of essential proteins and amino acids for poultry.
- New automatic control systems having automated showers and use of cooling pads in poultry farms which can be cleaned and disinfected easily becoming a trend in modern farms. For efficient feed distribution, new moving chain feeders are used which circulate the whole circuit within a few minutes. Flicker-free fluid, LED light systems with multiple light level settings are popular in modern farms.
- For monitoring ammonia and carbon dioxide levels in poultry farms special digital air quality monitors are used which give real-time readings of these gases in the facility where birds are kept.
Poultry farming has an important role in the Indian economy. Rural poultry farming is uplifting the rural livelihood which is essential for rural development. As the population of the world is increasing day by day, the demand for animal protein in the form of eggs and meat is increasing. This could become a big opportunity for poultry farmers. But this could not be possible until and unless modern poultry farming-related innovations are not adopted by Indian farmers. These modern poultry farming innovations can open the gate for success and prosperity for Indian poultry farmers. The growth of poultry farming can be visualized from its expansion from the initial stage and transformation to an industrial proposition over a period of six decades (1960- 2020). The advancement in science in every field is fast approaching and specifically, its application in poultry production has caught the attention of many learned poultry farmers. Automation has given a boost to increase the operational capacity to many folds.
Dr Sonal Dixit
