1,800 poultry farms to be rehabilitated

'1,800 nonfunctional poultry farms were creating financial burden'

PESHAWAR:

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Livestock Department has decided to reopen and rehabilitate 1,800 poultry farms that have been closed due to unstable prices of the chicken meat in the province.

The Livestock Department in collaboration with the private sector would work on rehabilitation and reopening of 1,700 open-shed and 65 other poultry farms in the province.

Director General Livestock (Extension), Dr Alamzaib while talking to media said there were 1,800 nonfunctional poultry farms in K-P that were creating financial burden not only for farmers but also on local people.

To fulfill the chicken meat requirement in the province, he said chickens were being acquired from Punjab by paying extra money due to its transportation and other charges.

He said the provincial government has decided in principle to rehabilitate and restart the closed poultry farms and for this purpose the owners of these farms would be taken into confidence. He informed reporters that a project costing Rs1 billion has also been approved in this regard.

Under the project, which would span over three years, DG Livestock said assistance would be provided to the owners of 250 poultry sheds, having a capacity of 2,000 to 5,000 chickens.

These farms would be registered with the Livestock Department, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2022.