Native chicken breeding complex in Hosur to supply 10-12 lakh chicks a year

Udumalai K Radhakrishnan said the native chicken breeding complex, which was proposed earlier, was being established at the District Livestock Farm at Hosur in Krishnagiri district. Moving the demand for grants for his department in the Assembly on Friday, Radhakrishnan said the complex being established at an outlay of Rs 6.74 crore would be able to approximately supply 10 to 12 lakh chicks annually to cater to the increasing demand for native chicken in the state.

Funds for the scheme have been sourced from the National Agriculture Development Programme. The state animal husbandry department already has a hatchery each at Masinagudi in Nilgiris, Cheranmahadevi in Tirunelveli and Kodaikanal in Dindigul district.

In the same vein, the state government has set a target of six lakh goats under the free distribution of goats/sheep scheme.

Minister Radhakrishnan told the House this afternoon that over 8.72 lakh “poorest of the poor” women were provided with over 34.88 lakh goats/sheeps and 67.07 lakh kids worth Rs 1,676 crore have been obtained from the goats/sheep distributed so far, which has led to the economic upliftment of the rural poor women.

The flagship scheme would be continued by providing six lakh goats/sheep to 1.5 lakh beneficiaries at no cost during 2018-19.

Under free distribution of milch cows scheme, the government has so far distributed 75,448 milch cows to eligible women since 2011-12. Approximately, 2.66 lakh liters of milk was being produced per day through these milch cows and 1,49, 426 calves worth Rs 74.71 crore were born, the Minister added assuring that the flagship scheme would be continued by providing 12,000 more milch cows.