For the first time in the State, women self-help groups under the 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 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 the 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 the first week of November that the Kudumbasree chicken project was initiated in Kerala with the State-level inauguration in Thiruvananthapuram. Since then, we have been attracting women self-help 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,” she said.

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 are existing licence holders in the field with previous expertise in rearing. Kudumbasree is encouraging rearing units set up by groups and individuals, Ms. Beegum said.

“If there is a shortage in supply of chicks from Thrissur, we will ensure alternative availability from hatcheries in Tamil Nadu. However, there will be strict enforcement of scientific rearing with quality,” 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.

“The chicken from our farms may be smaller in size because of our adherence to indigenous style of rearing,” she said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Kerala / by K. A. Shaji / Palakkad – December 12th, 2017