Prince is a young trader who wants to talk with you about his poultry raising and marketing business. He said though he has worked in poultry for a year but he can describe the business to you. He was in a job and started poultry farming out of curiosity.
He started with a small shed of 20x40, which had 800sq ft of space capable of housing 800 birds at a time. He started with Desi chicks as he was not interested in Broiler chicks. He raised Kadaknath, Vanraja bird, quails and others. When he went to sell his birds, he did not get the expected price for Vanraja and nobody bought his Kadaknath as they were too expensive. This issue of marketing of birds is faced by every new poultry farmer. There is a good margin with desi birds but you are not able to sell out the entire lot.
Today, his main business is trading in poultry and raising chicks is his side business. His poultry farm is the same size he started with and all of you must be familiar with what a trader does. He said in marketing you can go for free range chickens. You can raise these birds by taking them outside and you have some time. Sometimes you wonder that your bird is a Kg in size and consuming too much feed, hence raising it is expensive, so in case of free-range birds you can sell them any time. One time you feed them and at others they feed themselves as they run around in greenery. It takes some time but your cost of feed is lowered.
How to sell your birds
As for marketing you can sell your birds offline or online. Locally you can contact street vendors who will take certain amount from customers and then will pay you the price that you have quoted, hence, they get a definite income and you get a definite amount or you can tell them to pay per piece and tell them the price they can sell the birds at, hence to make good profit they will take the birds from you. The street vendors make some money and we have sales.
He said nowadays digital marketing is very popular and you can sell your birds online. He has his own Facebook Page "Swadeshi Farm" and a Facebook Group "Desi Poultry". You can see his videos on YouTube. You can make good use of digital platform but you will need to work hard. If you want to earn good money you need to work hard, there is no escaping from it. If you want to lead a simple farmers life just feeding the birds and raising them, you will not be able to survive, it's not possible he said. You will not only need to work on your farming but also, on your marketing.
If you have good hold in market, you not only sell your birds but you can sell birds of your friends too, other poultry farmers will come to you for assistance in marketing. You can even sell your birds at the butchers and make a good income.
Marketing is as important as farming
At the moment his main focus is on marketing. He is working with desi breeds mainly with Sonali breed. Sonali birds gain 1 Kg weight on 3 Kgs of feed and it takes them 80-85 days to be ready for the market. It's a pure desi breed and it fetches good price in the market. Pure desi is always in demand, but sometimes traders sell you other breeds in the name of desi breeds.
He recommends to farm with Kadaknath birds, you can start with 500 birds he says. If you start with too many birds you may face problems with selling out all of them. You can even start with ducklings where duck meat is in demand. You can raise white pekin, Indian runner or khaki Campbell ducks. He works with quails too.
It's only been a year in trading but he has worked with 7 states including Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand, UP, Bihar and Chhattisgarh. They provide chicks and birds to these states. They support the farmers raising the chicks with medical or any other issues that the birds may be facing. They connect the farmers to vets if required. They provide full support to the farmers in the sale of their birds. He always recommends to the poultry farmers to sell their birds themselves as it will help them maximize their income.
He is an engineer by profession and started with poultry as his side business. But now poultry is his main business and it can be your main business too. If you work hard you will definitely succeed. He said think about marketing before farming, see how your market works and then farm accordingly. Give the market what it needs. He requested you to follow his Facebook page "Swadeshi Farm” and thanked viewers for watching his recording. To see his video click here.