Artificial Intelligence in Poultry Industry

Artificial Intelligence in Poultry Industry

 Abstract

In each and every sector, artificial intelligence is used rampantly in order to increase the efficiency, accuracy, and to some extent the profit margin of employer by lowering labour expenses. Even though vegetarianism and veganism are on rise in whole over the world, global statistics view shows that poultry mead has increased demand. In layman term, we can say that artificial intelligence is the framework that is capable of doing all those task that is required human intelligence. Precision Livestock Farming is an AI based farm which uses automated machine in controlling and monitoring poultry production. Several tedious jobs like animal identification, automated weighing system, animal health monitoring, identification of diseased individual, disease diagnosis and management, optimising hatchery and poultry activities, post farm operations, genetic research etc. are much easier due to implementation of AI tools in poultry farm. There are several challenges like lack of infrastructure, high input cost, lack of skilled personnel, huge amount of data and finally the integration with existing traditional farming system, which prohibits the poultry entrepreneurs from implementation of new advanced AI tools.

Key words

Artificial intelligence (AI); Poultry farming sector in India; Scope of poultry farming in near future; Implementing AI: – Benefits, Challenges and Harmful effects; way forward.

Introduction: – 

Now a days, Artificial Intelligence has become a major weapon of developed countries to fight with the pace of advancement and better ways of development. In each sector, robotics, automated machines, programmed devices etc. have been used rampantly in order to increase the efficiency, accuracy, and to some extent to increase the profit margin of the employer by lowering the labour expenses. The above three criteria define the intention and mode of use of Artificial Intelligence in farming sector by an entrepreneur.

Even though vegetarianism and veganism are on rise in whole over the world, global statistics view shows that poultry mead has increased demand. The major reason is the jumping of many of the developing categories towards developed which has increased the wealthiness of inhabitants and make them to afford poultry meat. Promoting plant-based diet is a cruelty free way of gathering food, still poultry meat is a rich source of protein, and it is irreplaceable in Human society.

What is Artificial Intelligence: –

In layman term, we can say that artificial intelligence is the framework that is capable of doing all those task that is required human intelligence. Scientifically it is defined as ‘Artificial intelligence is the ability of a computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks that are commonly associated with the intellectual processes characteristic of humans, such as the ability to reason. Although there are as yet no AIs that match full human flexibility over wider domains or in tasks requiring much everyday knowledge, some AIs perform specific tasks as well as humans.’

Current Scenario of Poultry Farming in India: –

1. India has got 3^rd rank in egg and 7^th rank in chicken meat production in world.
2. India produces approximately 4 million tonnes of eggs are produced from 260 million layers and 3.8 tonnes of meat is produced from 3000 million broilers per annum.
3. The poultry sector has produced USD 20.06 billion of products 75.32% contribution from poultry meat sector and 24.67% contribution from poultry egg sector, which is quiet high numbers as compared to previous reports.

Scope in poultry farming: –

The India poultry market has witnessed remarkable growth and is a significant sector of the economy.

• Market Size and Growth:
  • In 2023, the monetary value of India’s poultry market was USD 30.46 billion. It is growing at a CAGR of 8.1% during the time period of 2024-2032, and expected to reach approximately USD 61.41 billion by 2032.
  • The market consists of two main segments:
    • Broilers: These are raised for meat production.
    • Eggs: Poultry farming for egg production.
  • Notably, households are the leading segment for eggs, while food services drive the demand for broilers due to increased consumption of eggs at home and dining-out trends.
  • Distribution Channels:
    • Traditional retail stores remain the preferred choice for consumers, offering freshly slaughtered chicken.
    • Regionally, Andhra Pradesh dominates the egg market, while Maharashtra leads in broiler production.
• Broiler Meat Production:
  • India produces around 5 million metric tonnes of broiler meat annually.
  • The current value of the India poultry market is approximately USD 28.18 billion, and it is expected to reach USD 44.97 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 8.1%.

Role of AI In Poultry Farming: –

Every entrepreneur wants a greater efficiency, low input cost, more profit margin and sustainable growth. Hence, they prefer using artificial intelligence in farming as it more over covers all the above desired parameters. Precision Livestock Farming is an AI based farm which uses automated machine in controlling and monitoring poultry production. Artificial intelligence in poultry farm in addressing environmental impact, animal welfare and production efficiency. The use of automated animal identifier and weighing machine improves the farm productivity.

1. Animal identification: –

• Identification of animal is a crucial part of farming management; it may be cattle or poultry. It is considered as a pillar of monitoring process in poultry farm. By using AI tools, tedious process like manual identification is completely replaced by automated system, which will increase the control level and reduce the staff demand.
• Usually wing bands or leg bands are used for identification in manual process, but the AI can detect individual birds by video footage, which will be more convenient.
• In more advanced AI tools, barcode like identification marks can be used which will simplify the identification along with record keeping both for machine and manager.

2. Automated weighing systems: –

• Although in poultry, weighing is not a major issue like other livestock species, still they are weighed in flock, which cause some logistic challenges.
• By using automated weighing machines supported by cameras and integrated with animal profile, can shorten the process and gives accurate weight by measuring the body parameters.
• This information acts as a database to health monitoring, tracking weight uniformity and regulatory complaiances.

3. AI based animal welfare monitoring and identifying diseased individual: –

• It is an integrated system, which help in a co-ordinated approach of animal welfare development along with maintaining healthy animals and decreasing chick mortality rate.
• It comprises of 05 components, i.e.
  1. Monitoring drinking and feeding behaviour
  2. Activity pattern, movement and posture analysis
  3. Faeces identification
  4. Monitoring heat stress with temperature analysis
  5. Monitoring livestock (poultry) vocalization 

4. Optimizing hatchery and poultry breeding: –
   • It comprises 06 components which will ultimately help in improvising breeding status of poultry farm and hatchery management.
   • Those are: –
     • Automated hatching, egg grading and selection
     • Automated incubation process control
     • Identifying live embryos in chicken egg
     • Monitoring embryos development
     • Sex determination
     • Predicting hatching probability and efficiency

5. Disease management: –
   • Chick mortality is a major factor of loss and it affect the profit of farm manager to a great extent.
   • Birds produce typical sounds and change in their behaviour during disease affection. By using an AI programmed machine which will alert the veterinarian regarding the disease. In the near future, AI will be able to diagnose the disease in an accurate manner.
   • Common problems like hurdling, cannibalism etc. can be detected by using a camera inside the farm.

6. Post farm activities: –
   • Post farm activities like grading of eggs, sorting of chicken meat (broiler meat), identifying diseased carcasses etc. can be done in an efficient manner by using AI.
   • AI can easily differentiate between the density of bone and meat; hence it can be used for deboning purpose in poultry industry.

7. Genetic research: –
   • AI can be used for collecting huge amounts of data and processing it in order to analyse and conduct genetic research activities.
   • By using mathematical analysis procedure, AI can perform statistical analysis of huge data, which is a tedious job for humans. Not only does it redices the time and complexity, but also it reduces the human error. Hence it is helpful in achieving more accuracy and precise genetic studies.

Challenges: –

1. Huge Data collection and Quality: –
   • It is a major drawback of using AI in the poultry sector. AI algorithms require proper relevant and accurate data to analyze, but most of the farms lack relevancy of their entered data which is not good for AI implementation.

2. Integration with existing system: –
   • As we have been following traditional systems for years, it needs a pilot test before full scale implementation.
   • A major factor that affects the integration of AI is the farmer’s innovativeness and interest.

3. Cost of Implementation: –
   • Very high initial cost of input which is a major challenge for medium and small-scale entrepreneurs.

4. Lack of skilled personnel: –
   • Due to lack of proper training and skilled education, our poultry farming sector lacks skilled personnel who will be able to conduct the AI operations in a proper way. It prohibits many commercial poultry companies from taking risk by investing such huge amount of money into this initiation.

5. Lack of Infrastructure: –
   • In our country, infrastructure has not developed as much that AI technologies can be implemented in poultry farms situated at ground level.
   • As we don’t have a well-developed infrastructure, we can’t convince the farmer to implement the new innovative technology despite its numerous advantages.

Conclusion: –

In an agrarian country like India, needs more and more reforms in farming sector. We are giving our core importance to the Industrial sector, but neglecting our agriculture system might be a harmful approach. The geographic and climatic position of our country has always been encouraging in the farming sector and its productivity which results from our glorified history of ancient farming dominance in exporting various farm products. Henceforth The government is implementing schemes not only for the development of farming sector, but also for sustainable development of farmers.

By targeting the above challenges, we can improve our poultry farming sector which will be beneficial for crores of small and marginal farmers in getting a stable source of income along with economic growth by the poultry entrepreneurs.

 References

1. https://www.britannica.com/technology/artificial-intelligence
2. https://www.pashudhanpraharee.com/status-of-poultry-production-in-india/
3. https://www.dahd.nic.in/invest-india-meat-poultry-india
4. https://www.expertmarketresearch.com/reports/india-poultry-market
5. https://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/the-expanding-landscape-of-indias-poultry-sector
6. https://nexocode.com/blog/posts/artificial-intelligence-in-poultry-industry-innovations-in-poultry-farming/
7. https://chord.pub/article/57117/challenges-and-considerations-in-implementing-ai-in-the-poultry-indust

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