Severe Crisis for Domestic Poultry if Govt. Reduces Import Duty on Chicken Legs from USA

DELHI, India - Nov. 5, 2019 - PRLog -- The Poultry Farming Community has requested the Prime Minister of India, Not to contemplate the reduction in the Import Duty on Chicken Legs from present 100% to 30% as reported in the media, under pressure from USA. It will affect millions of Poultry Farmers across the country including the interior villages and take away their livelihood and badly affect Maize and Soyabean farmers of the country.

The contribution of Poultry products to the Indian GDP is estimated to be over Rs 1,00,000 crores per annum and India is the 2^nd largest producer of Eggs in the World with production of 88 Billion eggs p.a. as per GOI statistics (next to China) and 3^rd in the World for Broilers (after USA and China) and is the only country having a consistent growth in the Agriculture & allied sector at 7% - 8% p.a., for the last three decades. This sector generates direct employment to over 2 million Small and Marginal Farmers in the interior rural Villages and indirectly to over 5 million Rural Households.

According to Dr. G. Ranjith Reddy, President, Telangana Poultry Breeders Association (TPBA),  Hon'ble Member of Parliament & CMD - SR Hatcheries Pvt. Ltd. "Prime Minister of India is motivating the Farmers to move towards non-crop activities like poultry and other livestock products for better income to reduce pressure on land and irrigation and in effort to double the farmers income .This reduction in customs duty will not only destroy Indian Poultry Industry but also the Soybean and Maize Growers as well because, as the Poultry is the main consumer for Maize and Soya meal. Thus the Corn and Soya meal prices will crash and we cannot compete in International market for these crops due to lower price as a result of huge farm subsidies given in USA / Brazil for Corn and Soybean (CBOT prices for Corn is USD 170/175  i.e. Rs.12,000 per MT against Rs 18,600MSP in India and De Oiled SOYA Cake of USD 325 i.e. Rs 24,000 against Rs.32,000 in India). This will badly affect the farming community defeating the objective of Doubling the Farmers income. In a country, where there are very limited options for Rainfed cropping, Maize and Soyabean are best suited covering approximately 79 and 112 Lakh hectares respectively in Kharif and this will cause huge unrest among farmers as there is no alternative crop for vast number of Maize and Soyabean producers."