Badakhshan poultry farms produce over 56 tons of chicken daily

FAIZABAD (Pajhwok): There are about 300 active poultry farms in northeastern Badakhshan province, which on average produce 56 tons of chicken daily, local officials said on Wednesday.

Talking to Pajhwok Afghan News, Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation director Engineer Naseer Ahmad Ahmadi said 300 of the total 350 poultry farms were active where over 9,000 chickens were being raised.

These poultry farms produce and supply over 2,225 tons of chicken meat to the local markets in every 40 days period, Ahmadi said.

The daily demand for chicken is 60 tons and the market still need to import nearly a ton of meat, meaning the province is still short 3.75 tons of chicken meat to reach self-sufficiency.

Hatchery and chicken food factories are also operating the province, but a number of poultry farm owners import chicks they need and chicken food from neighboring provinces, the reason Badakhshan could not reach self-sufficiency.

A number of poultry farms owners said due to unavailability of hatcheries, chicken food and veterinary medicines in Badakhshan, they needed to import such items from other provinces.

Omedullah, a poultry farm owner, said they imported chicks, chicken food and veterinary medicines for their farms from northern Kunduz, Kabul and eastern Jalalabad provinces, which cost them more money. “If such items were available in Badakhshan, the province would have already reached its self-sufficiency in poultry meat production.”

He said most of poultry farms in Kunduz were equipped with medicines and professional workers and they had to go to Kunduz during an outbreak of chicken illness.

Each 50 kilogram bag of chicken food cost 2,450 afghanis and they purchased each 10 day-old-chick for 7 afghanis and sold their produced meat for 170 afs per kilogram in whole sale and for 220 afs to consumers, Omedullah explained.

aw/ma