When Trilochan Kandel started poultry farming in Chitwan 30 years ago, he had 600 chickens. Raising 600 egg-laying layers was considered a big task at that time.

‘I have a big business coming up. I used to ask how many partners there are,’ said Kandel, who is also the former president of the Nepal Egg Producers Association. Currently, his farm has 50,000 layer chickens that lay eggs.

Now this number is also small. Rajendra Lamichhane of Nawalparasi (Bardaghat Susta East) has farms in three places and has been raising 300,000 layer chickens. This number has also become small. Binod Pokharel, president of the Nepal Layer Chicken Farmers Association, said that there are 500,000 to 600,000 layer chicken farms in Nepal. He said, ‘There are 20 farms raising 100,000 to 500,000 layer chickens.’

But there is another different side to the poultry farming sector. 6 years ago, there were around 800 layer chicken farmers in Nepal. ‘If we compare it to that time, 60 percent of farmers were displaced,’ said Kandel. The decrease in farmers’ income has affected production. But those involved in poultry farming say that there is no need to despair even if production decreases.’

Binod Pokharel, president of the Nepal Layers Poultry Farmers’ Association, says that 6 years ago, 75 to 8 million layer chickens were raised and more than 5.5 million eggs were produced per day. This is the data before the start of the corona infection. Pokharel says that the number of people involved in this business, which used to involve 80-900 farmers, has decreased after corona and is now around 160. ‘Now there are around 5.5 million layer chickens in Nepal. Daily egg production is between 3.8 and 4 million eggs,’ said Pokharel. Pokharel estimates that layer poultry farmers have been displaced from the business at a rate of 20 percent per year after corona. During the Corona period, the businessmen were hit by the lack of sales of their products. Then the prices of all kinds of food and chicks increased. ‘The difficulties kept increasing. Those who took loans from banks and entered this sector were burdened with interest. Businesses closed down and land went up for auction. The number of farmers, which had dropped to 150 in the last three years, has not changed much since then,’ said Lamichhane.

Kandel says that the situation has changed now, as it used to look like ‘one house, one poultry’. ‘My farm now has 50,000 layer chickens.’ But there used to be one lakh,’ said Kandel. Egg production, which reached a high point 5/6 years ago, has been gradually declining. He said that demand and production have now reached the right place. He said that after the displacement of small businessmen, the number of people raising chickens on the same farm has increased.

‘The subsistence-oriented situation of raising chickens at home and selling eggs has now taken a leap to the industrial level. There are few entrepreneurs, but many chickens have started to be raised. This has brought a balance between production and demand,’ said Kandel. He said that the quality of the product has also increased due to the introduction of new technologies in the feed industry, chick production and farms.

Kandel says that nowadays, there are very few people raising 10,000 chickens. Layer farmers keep at least 50,000 chickens. ‘At that time, the chicks had to be buried if they were not sold. Eggs also had no value. Farmers used to buy them cheaply because they spoil quickly,’ said Kandel.

Lamichhane, president of the Layer Chicken Farmers Association, says that they have now succeeded to some extent in getting the market price of eggs according to the cost price. ‘In the past three years, we have probably held more than five thousand meetings, both virtual and physical. The agenda of the meetings held with stakeholders many times was how to get the market price of eggs, how to stop illegal imports from the Indian border?’, said Chairman Pokharel.

Farmers were not able to benefit because there were many layers in between while taking poultry products to the market. Pokharel said that the bad effects of that sales cycle have also been reduced to a large extent. ‘Since last year, we have been getting the market price of eggs at around Rs 25. The two years before that it was Rs 20/22. The producers have received a price close to the cost price,’ he said.

The Nepal Poultry Entrepreneurs Forum has informed that the cost price of an egg will be Rs 19.12 per egg. The cost price has been fixed by a team of experts formed by the forum. Two years ago, a similar committee formed by the forum had fixed the cost price of eggs at Rs 16.56 per egg. ‘The price has been fixed by a team of professors from the University of Agriculture and Forestry formed by the forum. We hope that the government will support it,’ said forum chairman Raghunath Bhatta.

The entrepreneurs say that the poultry sector will get a lot of relief if the selling price is based on the cost price and if quarantine posts are opened 24 hours a day to control illegal imports. Now they have also demanded the government to formulate a policy that allows poultry-related industries to be opened only based on demand and need. ‘How much meat and how many eggs is needed in the country? If the government assesses this and opens industries and farms related to the poultry business in the same quantity, then farmers will not be displaced,’ said Binod Pokharel, chairman of the Nepal Layers Poultry Farmers’ Association.