23 countries including the US, Germany, France, China, India and Pakistan will take part at the three-day event centered on poultry and livestock to be held at Bangabandhu International Conference centre in Dhaka sometime in December.
President of WPSA-BB Md Abdur Razzak Mia made the announcement in a press briefing at the National Press Club recently. World’s Poultry Science Association-Bangladesh Branch (WPSA-BB) is organising the seventh edition of the event.
Mr Razzak also said that in the sixth International show around 6.0 billion to 7.0 billion taka (BDT) business deal was signed, which is expected to rise by BDT10 billion this year.
The poultry industry has pointed for some time as one which has multi-faceted prospects. First of all, it showed the way to increasing protein availability of the already vast population of the country .
The traditional poultry birds — reared naturally and in an unplanned manner– have been the mainstay for many years. But the needs of the growing population dictated planned breeding of poultry birds to cope with the higher demand. Thus, planned breeding of poultries that started from the eighties is now a well established field of activities in the country.
According to statistics available from operators in the sector, there are now about five Grand Parent Stock farms, 40-50 Parent Stock Farms and hatcheries, 70-80 thousand poultry farms and 15-20 poultry feed factories in the private sector.
The sector is also poised to grow rapidly. It has already posted growth of some 20 per cent in the last fifteen years. Owners and operator in the industry are confident that it could grow rapidly in the coming years and create employment opportunities for another 10 million people.
The employment would be created mainly among the current jobless ones at the grassroots levels. This is certainly very heartening news for an economy that suffers from a heavy burden of unemployment.
The poultry industry is not only meeting local needs very substantially, it has found newer opportunities from value addition. Food industries have grown up based on chicken that produce soups, nuggets, sausages and other products in accordance with the changing preferences of the customers.
Some of these local poultry based and value-added products have also found export markets. The export trend looks encouraging.
But the faster and fuller realisation of the potentials of this sector also require government’s supportive measures.
The association of owners in this industry drew attention to the needs of such supports in a recently held conference. Maize, the basic matter for making chicken feed, needs to be imported. The industry importers have requested withdrawl of advance income tax (AIT) on import of maize and also similar withdrawl of tax from feeds.
There are other raw materials and medicines which need importing for the poultry industry and its operators also expect the government to declare duty concessions on the import of these.
The government, therefore, should examine these requests sincerely and meet them to a reasonable extent. The government’s extending of these incentives are likely to create the environment for further brisk growth of this sector.
There is also another vital area where the government can contribute the most. This is in the area of monitoring and regulation. It was stated by the WPSA-BB that taka 2 billion was lost in this sector in the last avian influenza outbreak and the consequent culling of birds. Another estimate said that some taka 550 billion could have been lost, thus, from 2007.
Thus, the relevant agencies of the government will have to improve and extend their monitoring and regulatory functions. Specially, governmental supervision to create conditions for healthful breeding of the birds in the farms, is crucial.
Government has to conduct extensive countrywide monitoring and preventive activities to detect cases of bird flu and offset any turn towards its break out in epidemic form.
