Despite a record maize production last year, India’s poultry farmers are contending with higher retail prices of the poultry staple due to its increasing demand for ethanol blending. With a decline in sowing and deficient rainfall this year, experts say this is likely to get worse.
Maize was available to poultry farmers for Rs 12-14 per kg around the year 2019 but it now sells for Rs 27-28 per kg in the retail market. Since maize is the primary, starch-heavy food for all poultry and soymeal is the secondary food, farmers maintaining egg-layer and broiler poultry are both facing a crisis. They have to buy feed at these high prices and either pass on the cost to the consumer or bear the losses.
