Farmers devastated as unsold eggs pile up

ALAPPUZHA: The bird flu outbreak has badly hit the small  farmers who were growing ducks for  selling eggs.   They are now stocking eggs in their homes as there are no takers for them.

Omanakuttan, 47, Kalleliparambil, Vandanam, said he was helpless as about 6,000 eggs were going waste. His 1,000 ducks lay a minimum of 800 eggs daily. “It was my only source of income and  I was getting Rs 7 per egg. For a week, there have been no takers,”  he lamented.

“We were hit by the crisis as we were gaining from the decline in the import of  duck eggs from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh,”  said  Shaji Joseph, 43, from Pathirichira, Edathwa, who owns about 500 ducks.

“I was getting about Rs 1,500 every day. With the outbreak of the flu,  the source of income has dried up,” he said.

Around 89 percent of duck population in the district is concentrated in the Kuttanad area.

Mohanan,62,  Kannekkodi, Ambalappzuzha, said  that it was for the first time  in his  five-decade farming life that he had suffered such a loss.  “I have 1,000 ducks which lay about 900 eggs every day. I have no other business,” he said.