Articles
Location Change and Growth Process of the Production Areas in the Indian Broiler Industry
2018 Volume 73 Issue 3 Pages 114-126
Details
2018 Volume 73 Issue 3 Pages 114-126
This paper examines the location change and growth process of the production areas in the Indian broiler industry. Chicken consumption in India has increased remarkably because of current economic development and the traditional religious backgrounds. In particular, large proportions of Indian population are Hindu or Muslim and eating chicken is more acceptable from a religious viewpoint. Hence, broiler production areas have expanded from South India since the 1980s. The geographical impact of this "Pink Revolution" coming after the "Green Revolution" and "White Revolution" is attracting much attention.
The Indian broiler industry has been characterized as the regional difference between North and South for a long time. Concretely, many poultry companies and broiler production areas developed traditionally in South India, whereas a few production areas existed in North India. However, since the end of the 1990s, new production areas have grown rapidly in North India, especially in Haryana state.
Therefore, the author conducted field surveys in the two tahsils (administrative divisions) of Haryana state from 2016 to 2017. The results show that the traditional grain production areas have changed drastically, with many farmers starting to raise broilers and constructing two-story poultry sheds everywhere. The landscape of these tahsils has changed significantly by the diffusion of broiler production in the last two decades.
However, most of the broiler farmers in these tahsils didn't receive financial and technical help from the government when they started to broiler farming. Thus, the technical levels of these broiler farms are relatively low. Accordingly, it can be concluded that new production areas in Haryana state are vulnerable to higher risk of chicken diseases such as avian influenza. Countermeasures against chicken diseases must be undertaken in these areas by the central government of India and by the Haryana state.
