With no funds to buy eggs and vehicles for transportation, it's far behind private hatcheries
The Central Eggs Hatchery based in Pune does not have a single egg to hatch. Surprised? The explanation is, as the officials of the centre claim, that the government does not provide funds to buy eggs. The officials say they do not even have a vehicle to get eggs transported from other districts. As a result, they can’t provide chicks and hatching eggs to poultry keepers during winter.
The eleven acre campus of the centre is located on Pune-Mumbai Highway at Khadki. “The centre does not have any eggs this season and hence eggs won’t be hatched.
The new stock of chicks have arrived, but it will take two months to breed a new variety. Till then we can neither supply chickens nor hatching eggs in the district,” an official informed.
The centre has been set up to cater to the demand of poultry keepers in the region. The Pune region comprises Sangli, Satara, Solapur and Kolhapur and the centre is supposed to supply chicks and hatching eggs to these districts. The centre is run by the State Animal Husbandry Department and is meant to ensure availability of improved variety of desi chicken and hatching eggs to small farmers at village, taluka and district levels.
The official said that the centre does not provide adequate funds to buy eggs as well. “We have to send our staffers to other districts to buy eggs. During the transportation, most of the eggs break. Due to inadequate funds, sometimes our officers pay for the purchase of eggs.”
The centre has a capacity to hatch 20,000 to 22,000 eggs a month. The purpose of the hatchery was to produce sturdy and disease-resistant breeds, but the ground reality is totally contrasting. All the 10 sheds located on the campus are desolate with only a few employees visible in the office. “Staff crunch is also a big issue at the department. The Live Stock Development Officer (LSDO), assistant LSDO and clerk’s posts are vacant at the centre,” the official added. The sheds for the chickens look like they have not been cleaned for a long time. The fence of the centre is open at various places.
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