First time in the State, women self help groups under Kudumbasree Poverty Eradication Mission will start 10 exclusive shops in key locations of Palakkad district by January first week to market their own brand of processed and packaged poultry meat.
The shops, supported by 102 poultry farms started across the district, will supply high-quality broiler meat at an affordable rate. In another two months, similar shops will start functioning across the State.
Talking to The Hindu here, Kudumbasree district mission coordinator S.P. Harifa Beegum said Palakkad would be the first district to have the retail chain titled ‘Kudumbasree Chicken.’ Initiated with the assistance of Animal Husbandry Department, these stalls would help the State to stop depending on neighbouring Tamil Nadu for chicken. With the retail chain becoming a Statewide network, Kerala could achieve self-sufficiency in poultry meat production and broiler chicken rearing, she said.
“It was in November first week that the Kudumbasree chicken project was initiated in Kerala with a State-level inauguration in Thiruvananthapuram. Since then, we have been attracting women self groups to the sector by ensuring financial backup. Women are getting attracted to the field on a large scale in Palakkad because it needs low investments and minimal space to set up,” she said.
The Kudumbasree’s own hatchery in Thrissur would supply one-day-old chicks to the units in Palakkad on a daily basis. There would be strict quality monitoring at all levels including rearing, processing and packaging. The prices would be less than the existing market rate.
Among the 102 groups in Palakkad, 41 were existing licence holders in the field with previous expertise in rearing. Kudumbasree was encouraging rearing units set up by both groups and individuals, Ms. Beegum said.
“If there is a shortage in supply of chicks from Thrissur, we will ensure alternative availability of hatcheries in Tamil Nadu. However, there will be strict enforcement of scientific rearing with quality. Kudumbasree chicken will be safe for consumption,” said Ms Beegum. According to her, Palakkad would have the largest network of broiler chicken farms of Kudumbasree in the next one year and they would support even retail stalls in other parts of the State. Poultry farming had better prospects in Palakkad.
“The chicken from our farms may be smaller in size because of our adherence to indigenous style of rearing. But that will be advantageous for the consumers because they need not to worry about any kind of adulteration in the meat,” she said.