Rumour triggers collapse of Rs 25,000 crore poultry trade in Uttar Pradesh

Subhash Mishra | TNN | Updated: Apr 7, 2020, 07:54 IST

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LUCKNOW: A small rumour has pushed the Rs 25,000 crore poultry trade in the state to the brink of collapse. Thousands of people linked with the trade are out of job and their families are facing a starvation-like situation.
With hundreds of factories engaged in producing animal feed lying closed in the nationwide lockdown due to the fear of spread of new coronavirus and the police acting tough against shops selling chicken, the poultry industry in the state is facing heavy financial losses.

Repeated advisories by the Centre and the state that the meat eating is not linked to the new coronavirus outbreak, the poultry business continues to be affected by action taken against them by the state police and other law-enforcing agencies.
As the news of coronavirus turning a pandemic came, it was rumoured by a section of the society that new coronavirus infection is linked to meat eating. Since then the Central and state governments are trying hard to convince people that it is not right and meat eating does not cause coronarvirus infection, but to no avail.
Talking to TOI, principal secretary, animal husbandry, Bhuwnesh Kumar said that even the Centre’s advisory of inclusion of the meat trade in the category of essential services has failed to deliver desired results.
FM Shiekh, president of the UP Poultry Farmers' Association, told TOI that he has been writing to the Centre, state chief minister and UP chief secretary, drawing their attention towards the problem being faced by the industry, but nothing has changed. Factories producing bird feed are lying closed due to the lockdown resulting in its shortage, he said adding that in the absence of food birds have started eating one another.
He added that the state government has allowed grocery, fruit and vegetable shops to open during the lockdown, but there is no such order for poultry shops. UP, having the annual poultry trade of over Rs 25,000 crore, stands at the sixth spot in the country.