By IANS,
New Delhi : An NGO urged the government Monday to provide greater financing, research and extension services to small and medium poultry farmers.
“The government must also invest more in the rural supply chain — allowing poor farmers practising more humane and sustainable free-range egg and chicken production to capture a greater share of the market for eggs and meat,” said the NGO Humane Society, in its letter to union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on the occasion of World Food Day.
The NGO also urged the government to implement stronger environmental and farm animal welfare regulations which would discourage further industrialisation of the farm animal sector, and help reduce the harmful impacts of current animal factories on the environment, animals, and human communities.
“It would be pertinent to critically look at the impact of industrial farm animal production on food security and to develop a road map for sustainable farm animal production through cooperatives,” said the NGO.
According to the NGO, in India, over the past 50 years, egg and chicken meat production has been radically transformed from a largely backyard activity to a massive agro-industry. But around 140 to 200 million egg-laying hens suffer extreme confinement in barren, wire battery cages so restrictive they cannot even spread their wings.