With the Union Government all set to unveil a National livestock Mission (NlM), the Centre has urged the Odisha Government to prepare an action plan on poultry so that it would help develop the sector in the State.
Joint Secretary of the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries in the Union Ministry of Agriculture Sanjay Bhoosreddy has sent a letter in this regard to Chief Secretary JK Mohapatra on Saturday. The Chief Secretary has asked Secretary of Fisheries and Animal Resources Development (FARD) Bishnupada Sethi to prepare the action plan.
Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram had announced in his Budget speech that the NlM with a kitty of `307 crore would be launched in 2013-14 to support poultry, dairy farming and fisheries, which are critical for small farmers to keep their earning going in case crops fail. Many States, including Odisha, have accorded full agriculture status to poultry.
States like Uttar Pradesh have gone ahead with a policy for poultry development and establishment of layer and broiler parent breeder farms. Tamil Nadu has also converged the other schemes with their front-ended share of subsidy to achieve synergy and boost the poultry farming in ‘non-traditional Areas’.
These experiences can be replicated in Odisha, which would enable the poultry sector to keep pace with the proposed growth rate of 5-6 per cent, said an official.
Secondly, poultry products are mostly transacted in wet markets with processing accounting for negligible of about 2-5 per cent. The Centre feels the poultry sector is dis-incentivised due to the fact that processed and packed poultry meat attracts higher Value Added Tax (VAT).
Therefore, Bhoosreddy has requested the State Government to relook into the VAT system and advise the VAT Committee to waive or reduce VAT on hygienically-slaughtered, dressed and packed poultry products.