Small, medium poultry farms, new rules put more burden

Ground Report | New Delhi: Small, medium poultry farms; To control environmental pollution, poultry farms keeping more than five thousand and less than one lakh birds in the country will also be under the regulated limit under a new guideline issued recently. The small and medium-sized industry has been taken out of the green category, Downtoearth reported.

Small, medium poultry farms

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has issued a comprehensive and varied guideline in August 2021 for the first time since the brief 2015 guidelines.

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In the new guideline, the establishing and operating medium-sized poultry of 25 thousand to one lakh birds in the same place, the concerned poultry should be obtained from the State Pollution Control Board or Committee under the Water Act, 1974 and the Air Act, 1981.

Under this, a certificate of Consent to Establishment (CTE) or Consent to Operate (CTO) will also have to be obtained. Permission will be valid for 15 years if there is any poultry in the green category. For the first time, three categories have been created according to the number of birds in the poultry farm in the country. Small and small-scale poultry farms have been defined in these three categories.

• 5 to 25,000 : Small Category
• Above 25,000 and less than 100,000 : Medium Category
• Over 100,000 : Large Category

According to the 20th Livestock Census, there is 851.8 million poultry population in the country. About 30 percent (250 crore) of this is backyard poultry. In the poultry sector, the organized sector is around 80 percent and the unorganized sector is around 20 percent. In fact, the unorganized sector is also called backyard poultry.

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Major provisions

• The guideline states that there should be a ventilated room to reduce the gaseous pollution from poultry. Also, care should be taken that the poultry manure does not mix with running water or any other pesticide. At the same time, emphasis has also been given for daily removal of birds that die in poultry and burial without harming the environment.

• The new guidelines state that for setting up and operating a medium-sized poultry farm of 25,000-100,000 birds, a farmer has to obtain consent for establishment or a certificate of consent to operate.

• It has been asked to make proper distance between the birds in the farm and also to make proper arrangements for protection from rats and flies. 

• Apart from this, the flying dust while mixing and preparing the fodder also disturbs the people. For this, a chamber will have to be made at such a gate where dust does not fly during mixing.

• A farm should be established at a distance of 500 meters from residential area, 100 meters from rivers, lakes, canals and drinking water sources, 100 meters from national highways and 10-15 meters from village footpaths and rural roads.

• The Animal Husbandry Department will be responsible for implementing the guidelines at the state and district level.

• Farmers of small and medium sized poultry farms will have to arrange for manure. For example, biogas will also have to be arranged with composting in small poultry and medium-sized composting.  

• After using the water in the poultry, it has to be collected in the tank. It is suggested to use this water in horticulture. 

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