Innovative and Technology and Practices transforming India’s poultry sector
Nimrat kaur (BVSc and AH Final yr.)
Introduction:-
The term ‘Poultry’ refers to all domesticated avian species that includes chicken, ducks, quails, turkeys, geese, guinea fowl, pigeons, emu etc., although it is often used as synonyms to chicken. In India, poultry production ranges from the small-scale family rearing a few birds in the backyard to the large-scale poultry production by highly integrated commercial complexes.
History of development of poultry Industry in India
In India, effort to develop poultry industry in India was first started in 1957, when the II-Five year plan (1956-61) was launched. Almost all the poultry farm equipment were also imported and supplied to regional poultry farms. Besides 269 poultry extension cum development centres, each unit with a unit of 100 layers of improved breeds were setup at different parts of the country.
Various farms and institutes developed in India are :-
Central Poultry Breeding farms at Mumbai, Bhuvaneswar and Hasserghata have produced high egg producing strains and Chandigarh farm has evolved fast growing broiler strains.
Random sample units are conducting egg laying and broiler quality test and provides useful information to poultry farmers and breeders related to performances of various stocks available in the country.
CPDO & TI ( Central Poultry Development Organization and Training Institute) at Hasserghata.
CARI (Central Avian Research Institute) at Izatnagar.
They are imparting training to officers of the state agricultural and veterinary universities in various aspects of poultry farming.
NECC (National egg Coordination Committee) most of today’s egg production in India comes from NECC members.
Chicken production in India :-
At present, one of the fastest growing segments of the agricultural sector in India is poultry. As egg and broiler production has been rising at the rate of 8 to 10 % per annum. India is now the world’s third largest egg producer and fifth largest producer of broilers.
Role And Importance Of Digital Transformation In Indian Poultry Sector- The Way Forward Indian poultry sector :-
At a glance: The Indian poultry Sector has over the years grown exponentially and is playing a significant role in contributing to India’s Gross value added among all the primary sectors.
The sector has witnessed a whopping growth in the last 10 years at a compounded annualized growth rate ( CAGR) of 7.5% with a cumulative revenue of ~ INR 130 Billion producing ~ 6+ Million MT of Broiler meat and ~90 billion edible eggs annually.
The Indian poultry sector generates direct and indirect employment to more than 5 million rural and urban Indians, contributing to 5% of Agriculture GDP. The production efficiency in the poultry sector has improved significantly over the last one decade. The feed conversion ratio in broiler meat production has come down to 1.55-1.6 against 1.8-1.9 a decade ago with an efficiency improvement of ~14%. Similarly, in the layer and breeder sector as well, the hen housed eggs and hen housed hatching eggs has improvised to a great extent.
Digital transformation in Indian poultry sector:
Irrespective of their size of the businesses, for several years now, digital transformation has been an objective for many organizations within the poultry sector, and yet has been neglected due to competing priorities. Earlier, it took years for an organization to build and implement a technology-driven strategy, however, with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on businesses, the pace of adopting the latest digital transformation trends is multifold. Additionally, the dependence on the relevant technologies, such as machine learning, SaaS products, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and more, has also resulted in accelerating advancements and democratization.
The adoption of agritechnologies has matured in India to a large extent. The poultry industry has witnessed monumental numerous transformational technological adoptions.
This translates to enhanced traits in terms of egg production, growth rate, livability, disease resistance, feed efficiency and egg and meat quality. Modern tech enables a higher rate and persistence of egg and meat production, better feed efficiency, egg size, egg quality, muscle mass, carcass quality, feed efficiency and livability in boilers. The country’s poultry sector has shown immense growth which is reflecting in its ongoing operations.
- Modernisation of packaging to reduce wastage
- Vacuum packaging for longer shelf life
- Smart poultry farms with IOT.
Conclusion:
- The growth of poultry farming can be visualized from its expansion from initial stage and transformation to 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.
- The automation has given boost to increase the operational capacity to many folds. A simple example is change over from deep litter to cage system, to present environmentally controlled units and introduction of automated feeding and watering systems.
- Currently application of computer based technologies in feed formulations, egg and meat production has generated a big data on all operations. Automation can be used to replace manual labor on poultry farms when it comes to repetitive tasks like checking bird welfare, vaccinations and managing litter.
- However, the latest technologies will change the future farming systems if they are used properly looking in to the economic implications in adopting newer technologies.
- Greatful to the dedicated private poultry suppliers, farmers, technicians and poultry scientists who stood at every level of its growth facing many challenges and finding the salvations from time to time.
Refrences :-
- R.N. Sreenivas Gowda; SR publications – Article modern innovations in poultry.
- Manjari Pandey; Article modern technologies shaping poultry industry.
- Nitin Konde; Article on Indian poultry agrosepctrumindia.com
- Livestock production and management N.S.R.Sastry C.K.Thomas
Nimrat kaur (BVSc and AH Final yr.)
Innovative technology and practices transforming India’s poultry farming sectors
