Recent News On AVIAN FLU In India + India's ARCTIC MISSION + Farm Subsidy

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NEWS Bulletin from Indian Society For Sustainable Agriculture And Rural Development ********************************** MORE On AVIAN FLU In India---- 1. Bird flu may spread to Tripura - Manipur Avian Flu has cost the industry Rs 670 cr (Rs 6,700 million) 2. Production pared to check egg prices India's ARCTIC EXPLORATION---- 3. Sibal flags off Indian expedition to Arctic 4. Farmers oppose indirect subsidy ---------- Bird flu may spread to Tripura Manipur Avian Flu has cost the industry Rs 670 cr http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Bird-flu-may-spread-to-Tripura/208850/ ASHOK B SHARMAPosted online: Monday , August 06, 2007 at 0035 hrs IST New Delhi, Aug 5 The poultry industry of northeast India is very concerned as the reports of confirmation of outbreak of Avian Flu in Tripura are awaited. Last week, about 300 chickens died within two days in Divyadoy Krishi farm in West Tripura district. On August 2, 2007 after initial tests conducted by the state veterinary officials the samples were sent to High Security Animal Disease

Laboratory (HSADL), Bhopal and National Institute of Virology, Pune for detecting the possible presence of the strains of highly pathogenic Avian Flu virus - H5N1. Tripura borders avian flu-affected Bangladesh. “The reports from these two institutes are awaited," said the joint secretary in the Union animal husbandry department, Upma Chawdhary. The incidence of avian flu on a single farm in village Chingmeirong in East Imphal district in Manipur and its subsequent fallout have already crippled the industry in the state and caused a heavy loss to farmers. The leader of Bharat Krishak Samaj, Krishan Bir Choudhary who visited the spot of occurrence alleged, “Indigenous birds reared by farmers are being culled, placing village folks at heavy losses. Avian flu virus must have come from Myanmar or Bangladesh and this needs to be investigated. Exotic birds are more efficient carriers

of the virus and ultimately the indigenous birds become the victims.” According to an estimate made by north eastern Poultry and Egg Federation (NEPEF), the poultry sector in Manipur state, which has a market size of Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10,000 million) has suffered a loss of Rs 670 crore (Rs 6,700 million) The NEPEF president JK Talukdar said, “If timely preventive actions are not taken, the poultry industry in the entire north-eastern region would be severely affected.” After the confirmation of the incidence of avian flu in Manipur in July 25, 2007, 128 poultry units within a radius of 5 km from Chingmeirong village had been targeted for culling operations and surveillance operations were carried out with a radius of 10 km. About 3,31,606 birds including ducks have been culled so far, 28,103 eggs and 25,242 kg feed were destroyed. The government has set a

target to cull 1,50,000 birds in the area. ------------- Production pared to check egg prices http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Production-pared-to-check-egg-prices/208852/ Jaishankar JayaramiahPosted online: Monday , August 06, 2007 at 0036 hrs IST Bangalore, Aug 5 Indian poultry industry has begun to cut back production to check falling egg prices on the back of the bird flu outbreak in the country. After the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) notifying India as bird flu hit country, several countries including UAE, which is the major egg customer of India, banned egg

imports from the country. Following this, eggs produced started stagnating in the last one week leading to marginal price crash in the local market. However the industry will not be affected this time as it suffered in the last year when the bird flu hit Maharashtra in February 2006, said Dr D Selvaraj, chairman, National Egg Cordination Committee (Namakal-zone). Now the people have awareness that the bird flu hit in Manipur, which is located in the faraway remote place of northeastern region, will not affect other parts of the country, Selvaraj said. However the egg prices are expected to decline marginally for a short term but it would stabilise immediately as the industry has chalked out plans to cut the production. The production cut will be mainly in Namakal belt in Tamil Nadu, which accounts for 90% of the egg exports, he added. Usually, the Indian farms maintain 20-21

crore layer birds, which lay around 15 crore eggs every day. In 2006 when bird flu hit the country, farms have reduced the layer birds to 15 crore birds. When the country has recovered back to its original production status of 15 crore eggs per day, detection of bird flu in Manipur came as a major blow to the industry, sources added. Currently the poultry farms in Namakal produce around 2.5 lakh eggs per day by maintaining around 3.5 lakh birds. Generally, new birds are placed instead of old layer birds, which lay eggs for around 72 weeks. But this time Namakal farmers would send layer birds to slaughter homes for culling once it crosses 50 weeks to bring down the egg production, Selvaraj added. After a few countries banned Indian eggs, egg exports declined by 50% to 25 lakh eggs from 50 lakh eggs per day. In Namakal belt alone, daily more than 20 lakh eggs are stagnating,

sources added. --------------- Sibal flags off Indian expedition to Arctic http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Sibal-flags-off-Indian-expedition-to-Arctic/208469/ ASHOK B SHARMAPosted online: Friday , August 03, 2007 at 2340 hrs IST New Delhi, Aug 3 Union minister for science and technology and earth Sciences Kapil Sibal on Friday launched the first Indian scientific expedition to the Arctic region as he handed over the national flag to director of National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR) Rasik Ravindra Ravindra is slated to lead the team heading for Arctic

expedition. Other members of the team are NCAOR scientist, SM Singh, deputy director of the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Microbiology (CCMB) S Shivaji, meoteorologist from Indian Institute on Tropical Meteorology, CG Deshpande, and Dhruv Sen Singh from University of Lucknow. At a formal sending off ceremony in New Delhi, the minister wished the team success in their planned scientific endeavours. To begin with, the team will initiate the following three projects in collaboration with the Norwegian Polar Research Institute—isolation of Arctic microbes as work horses of biotechnology, measurement of atmospheric aerosols and ions in the Arctic region and collaborate in earth science studies at Svalbard in Norway. During the first phase, Indian scientists will initiate work on the above three projects at Ny-Alesund situated on the west coast Spitsbergen - the largest

island in the Svalbard archipelago, Norway - and work for a period ranging from two weeks to four weeks during August and September 2007. In the second phase, the following four projects will be initiated in the early spring next year, commencing in February 2008, namely snowpack production of carbon monoxide and its diurnal variability, sea ice microbial communities project, carbon-cycling in the near-shore environments of Kongsfjorden and understanding the link between the Arctic and tropical Indian Ocean climatic variations. The first Indian Arctic expedition marks a beginning of long term scientific research by Indian scientists in yet another arena of global scientific collaborative research in the difficult polar regions, since the first Indian scientific expedition landed in Antarctica in 1981. Only Norway, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Japan, South Korea and China, have their research stations in Ny-Alesund for Arctic

research------------ Farmers oppose indirect subsidy http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Farmers-oppose-indirect-subsidy/208431/ ASHOK B SHARMAPosted online: Friday , August 03, 2007 at 2218 hrs IST New Delhi, Aug 3 Farmer organisations across the country have criticized the government for not being able to deliver subsidy directly to them and routing it through the industry. The minister for chemicals and fertilisers, Ram Vilas Paswan after meeting the fertiliser advisory forum on Wednesday had said, it would be difficult to deliver the earmarked fertiliser subsidy directly

to farmers. Reacting to Paswan's statement, leader of Bharat Krishak Samaj, Krishan Bir Chaudhary said, "The meeting of fertiliser advisory forum called by the minister had no leader from any recognised farmers' organisation. The forum took the decision without incorporating views from the farmers." Chaudhary said that delivering subsidy directly to farmers cannot be a problem in this age of technology. It only requires the willingness of the government to do so. Land records in most parts of the country are computerised as per the claims of the government and therefore it would not be difficult to identify farmers and their land holdings, he said. Farmers alleged that they get very little benefits from the earmarked subsidy when routed through industry. General secretary of Hyderabad-based Consortium of Indian Farmers' Associations (CIFA), P

Chengal Reddy said : "There can be no problem even in identifying tenant farmers. In Andhra Pradesh, tenant farmers have formed their own association and banks are extending credit to them directly. Rakesh Tikait of Bharatiya Kissan Union said that the government should earmark an appropriate level of subsidy to deliver it directly to farmers. It should be left to farmers, whether he would like to use it for chemical farming or organic agriculture. The study conducted by Tata Consultancy Services has suggested four options like direct cash transfer to farmers through bank accounts irrespective of the usage of the subsidy, subsidy payment through pre-loaded smart cards with linkage to purchase of agri inputs or with linkage to limited fertilizer purchase or with linkage to umlimited fertilizer purchase. ----

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