Bengal to become self-reliant in egg production by 2023: ARD Min in Assembly

Kolkata: Bengal will become self-sufficient in egg production by the end of the 2023 calendar year, state Animal Resources Development (ARD) minister Swapan Debnath said at the Assembly on Tuesday.

The minister informed the House about the various initiatives taken by his department to augment production and completely cut down on imports from other states..

According to him, the state has an annual requirement of 1,440 crore eggs out of which 1,170 crore are produced in the state. So, 270 crore eggs need to be imported from other states to cater to the requirement.

Presently, 613.5 crore eggs are produced in the unorganised (domestic) sector, 550.23 crore in the organised sector and 6.10 crore through the West Bengal Livestock Development Corporation (WBLDC).

"We have already taken measures through which we will procure 726.75 crore eggs through the unorganised sector, 666.25 crore through the organised sector and 47 crore through the WBLDC," Debnath said adding that since 2011, the state has increased egg production by 133 percent .

The Bengal government has taken up a project worth Rs 380 crore to augment both egg and meat production that would lead to nearly 4.5 lakh employment opportunities.

It is the highest ever one-time investment in the history of the state's ARD sector with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee laying emphasis in making Bengal self-reliant in egg production.

Out of Rs 380 crore, the state government has chalked out a detailed plan of action to utilise nearly Rs 315 crore to set up three Environment Controlled Commercial Layer Farms (ECCLF), poultry manure and waste processing units to produce bio-fertiliser and a feed plant at Kalyani to cater the needs of the poultry sector.

The three ECCLF are coming up at Haringhata, Harishchandrapur in Malda and Mekhliganj in Cooch Behar that would ensure yearly 47 crore egg production by adopting modern poultry farming mechanisms in an environment controlled manner. There would be three lakh birds in each farm. At present, two such major farms are operational in Kalyani.

The remaining, around Rs 72 crore, would be utilised for setting up a major meat processing industry to increase the per day production of Haringhata Meat from 12 MT to 49 MT. NABARD has recently given sanction of Rs 380 crore under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF).

The minister added that a boiler breeding farm with the capacity of producing 33,000 eggs have come up at Jhotiakhali in Jalpaiguri while 45,000 ducklings are being reared at a duck farm situated in Kalyani.

The ARD department came up with the Incentive Policy 2017 for poultry farmers with the department gearing up to provide subsidy to the extent of Rs 80 lakh for people working towards augmenting egg production. "The government has already provided incentive to the tune of Rs 2.60 crore," the minister added.