Kolkata: The West Bengal Livestock Development Corporation Limited (WBLDCL) is in the process of establishing a commercial poultry layer farm at Malda under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF). The proposed farm located at Gour Road, Makdumpur, is expected to start its operation within 2023.
The farm will have a capacity of three lakh layer birds enabling a daily production of 2.4 lakh eggs. Construction of the farm began in March 2022 and more than 70 per cent of the construction work has been completed till now.
“The primary objective of the farm is to supply table eggs to the consumers of districts of Malda, Uttar Dinajpur and Dakshin Dinajpur and more than 100 youths are expected to be engaged in the daily operational procedure of the farm,” a senior official of WBLDC said.
A total of four sheds will be constructed in the layer farm of which one will be for chicks and growing birds, while the other three for egg-laying birds, each having 1 lakh capacity.
Of these four sheds, construction of a brooder shed has been successfully completed. In this shed, young poultry birds will be kept till the time they attain their egg-laying stage. Brooder shed is constructed and mechanised in respect of automatically-controlled temperature and humidity that will keep the young birds comfortably warm so that they may grow to a stage of adult layer having minimum mortality and morbidity.
The state government is well-poised to attain self-sufficiency in egg production by 2023-24, being able to produce more than its demand of 1440 crore eggs annually.
The state Animal Resources Development (ARD) department is coming up with four more state-of-the-art, environmentally-controlled mega Commercial Layer Farms, each having a capacity of 3 lakh birds at Mekhligunj (Cooch Behar), Purulia, Salboni (West Midnapore) and Haringhata (Nadia).
All these farms are expected to start egg production from December 2023 onwards, and by March 2024, are expected to together contribute an additional 46 crore eggs annually.
“The annual budgetary allocation for the backyard poultry sector, comprising individual beneficiaries and women’s Self-Help-Groups, has been tripled — from Rs 33 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 111 crore in 2023-24.
Direct employment has been provided to more than 14 lakh persons in the last two years alone,” a Nabanna official said.