Malkeet’s poultry farm had 20,000 chickens about 10 days ago. Now there is none, and Malkeet does not want to do this ever again.

First the rumours linking coronavirus to chicken meat and then the 21-day lockdown to fight the virus destroyed his business, said Malkeet, whose Dharamvir Poultry is in the Jind district of Haryana.

“I somehow managed to sell the chickens at throwaway price because I would not have been able to feed them if I had kept them,” said Malkeet. “There are a lot of people here whose main business is this. After all this, I will not start the poultry farm again.”

Jind, Kaithal, Panipat, Kurukshetra, Gurugram and Barwala of Haryana are the largest centres of egg-broiler chicken with a turnover of Rs 15,000 crore. In Haryana, there are more than 1,500 hatcheries, over 250 layer farms for eggs and 2,000 broiler farms that rear more than 1.5 crore chickens. They require an average of 22,000 tonnes of grains every day.

“Coronavirus and the lockdown have hit every business, but none has suffered as much as the poultry industry,” said Dilbagh Malik, who poultry group operates farms in districts such as Jind and Kaithal with close to 20 lakh broilers and is associated with 250 farmers. “Companies in other sectors are also closed, but, in poultry, one has to feed the chickens, spend money upon them even during lockdown,” he said.

“Poultry feed is hard to find. Labourers are not available. Eggs are not able to leave layer farms and are rotting. If the situation continues, it may result in a variety of diseases.”

The ministry of home affairs has issued orders to all states to not stop the movements of cattle feed and fodder. Cattle feed trucks are stranded at the border of many states because state governments are not allowing them to proceed.

Every day, poultry feed requires about 130-150 grams of grains like maize, bajra, soybean and rice, which enhance the weight of chickens and ensure eggs of good quality. Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are the main suppliers of soybean and bajra, but now the supply has stopped, said poultry farmers.

Harpal Danda, secretary, Poultry Federation of India, said: “Currently, I have 1.5 lakh chickens. It costs Rs 120-130 to rear each of them. We are ruined. We will have to start again from scratch.”

He added: “There were 1.40 crore chickens produced every day in the country, but now most of that has stopped. Haryana alone produces about 2 to 2.50 crore eggs every day. The broiler people have closed everything; the layer’s condition is also very bad. This is the worst time for poultry by far.”