Impact of bio-security management intervention on growth performance and profitability of broiler farming in Bangladesh

M Y Ali, S S Jahan, M I A Begum and A Islam¹

Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi-6205, Bangladesh,
¹Department of Dairy and Poultry Science, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur 1706, Bangladesh
yshila@yahoo.com

Abstract

The study was undertaken to determine the productive performance and profitability of broiler farming carried out with and without bio-security management intervention in different locations of Bangladesh. For obtaining information from farmers who reared broilers under bio-secured and non bio-secured management condition, filed level primary data were collected by survey from a total of 90 broiler farmers by direct interviewing of which 30 in Rajshahi, 30 in Pabna and 30 in Kishoregonj districts of Bangladesh. Categories of farm (bio-secured and non bio-secured) were identified by using measures of bio-security standard which were based on marks. According to bio-security standard of small scale broiler farm, those farms that got above 60 marks were considered bio-secured farms and below 60 marks non bio-secured farms (out of 100 marks).

Within total of 90 farms, 51 were bio-secured and 39 were non-bio-secured in the three districts. Among 90 farms, 21 broiler farms size had 500 broilers, 18 had 600 broilers, 14 had 700 broilers, 15 had 800 broilers, 12 had 900 broilers and 10 had 1000 broilers.  Data collected for productive performance, cost and returns of farming were used to determine benefit cost ratio (BCR). Data were statistically analyzed and comparisons of results were made between farms with and without bio-secured intervention. Productive performance indicated no significant difference among farm sizes with respect to body weight, feed consumption and survivability but FCR showed better trends as the farm size increased. When farms of similar sizes were maintained with bio-secured conditions, overall FCR tended to be better than in non bio-secured managed farm.  Benefit cost ratio showed higher trends as the farm size increased and this was true for both bio-secured and non bio-secured intervention. Raising broilers in farms of small sizes (500, 600 and 700 broilers) had smaller (or no) profit under non bio-secured managed intervention but profitability of such farms may be ensured if intervention in terms of bio-security management aspect is disseminated to the farmers. Analysis of cost and returns showed that cost of farming per bird decreases and return increases as the farm size increases. It was concluded, therefore, that satisfactory productive performance is achievable and profitability may be improved from broiler farming at the households’ level if bio-security management intervention is practiced.

Key words: cost and returns, economics, farm size, non bio-security

Introduction

Consumption of animal protein is much lower in Bangladesh than in some other countries of the world. According to Ali and Hossain (2012) with referring FAO statistics, the per capita availability of all meat is only 14.67-kg as against the requirement of 56 kg. The per capita poultry meat availability is approximately one-fifth of the consumed meat (3kg) which needs to be increased more than double to satisfy the current demand of 7.67kg (Begum et al 2010) So, there is a huge gap between requirement and availability of meat for human consumption. Statistics revealed that those are a big opportunity to increase the production through commercial broiler farming. Broiler farming has become a promising and dynamic industry with enormous potential for animal protein supply, income generation and poverty alleviation (Bhende 2006). Dolberg (2008) reported that 66% of all consumed poultry meat consumption came from commercial broiler sector. Due to short life cycle, low capital investment and quick return broiler farming plays a vital role in improving the livelihood as well as food security.  Rahman et al (2006) showed that commercial broiler farming provide employment opportunities for unemployed family members, improve socio-economic conditions and increase women empowerment among rural people in Bangladesh. Practicing of bio-security plays an important role for maximizing the profitability (Saleque and Rosen 2011).

Commercial poultry sector in Bangladesh grew by 20% annually up to 2007 and has supported livelihood of 6 million people directly and indirectly through 1,50,000 commercial farms. The total direct investment in this sector is about TK. 15000 crore (US$ 2.14 billion) (Nutritional Poultry Policy 2008). However, during 2007 and 2008 the recent outbreaks of avian influenza affected seriously both commercial and households poultry and caused a huge loss of TK. 4000 core (US$ 600 million) (BLRI 2008). HPAI and other diseases still remain due to various factors as multi age production practices, mixed farming, unstructured intensive poultry framing, contact with migratory and wild birds, large imports of poultry and poultry products, frequently cross border movement of people, high regional farm density and unregulated wet markets. Bio-security demands for policy intervention, building public and private partnership, enhanced practice and promotion by all stakeholders to protect poultry for maximizing the profit, producing safe food and also exploring the opportunity to enter into export market (Saleque and Rosen 2011).

In view of current scenario in Bangladesh, broiler can play a vital role in meeting the deficiency of protein as well as improvement of rural livelihood but the number of farms has been decreasing trend in the recent years due to a number of factors (Chowdhury 2013). According to National Committee for Protection of Poultry Industry in Bangladesh, there were about 1,14,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in June 2010, 98000 in December 2010 and 74000 in March 2011 in the country of which 52% farm size between 500 and 5000 birds and the rest were very small with 100-500 birds which were treated as small-scale farms. The profitability of broiler farming is affected by various factors, for example farm size, training, education, farming experience, bio-security etc. The large commercial broiler producers are able to overcome problems as they have high investment in this sector. On the other hand, small scale rural broiler producers, although take up poultry production as a means of self – employment to maintain livelihood, mostly fail to manage their farms efficiently due to their limited resources, lack of knowledge and very low investment. As a result, their profitability is not in a static condition. Sometimes, farmers could draw profit but at other times they incur loss. Due to high price of chick and feed and failure to obtain fair price of their product, if further aggravates the situation. Therefore, farmers are demotivated to continue farming. Besides, some farmers are illiterate and they do not have adequate knowledge about the nature of input to use and how to make profitability production. In addition, the size of farm also affects their management procedure and consequently their profit. The Government and NGOs always encourage the rural farmers for poultry production but the minimum farms size for profitability production is yet to be determined. It is therefore important to generate information on profitability from broiler farming. The present study was therefore taken to determine the status of productive performance, costs and returns of broiler farming  at field level  with or without bio-security management intervention and to determine minimum flock size to ensure the profitability.

Materials and methods

For obtaining information from farmers who rear broilers under bio-secured and non bio-secured condition, field level data were collected from a total of 90 broiler farmers by direct interviewing. Three districts of Bangladesh like Rajshahi, Pabna and Kishorgonj were selected and 30 farms were taken from each district for the study considering feed and broiler strain of the same company. The data were collected using a semi structured questionnaire during the period from January - July, 2013. Total 90 broiler farms were selected as two categories; bio-secured and non bio- secured by using measures of biosecurity standard. According to bio-security standard of broiler farm, those farms  got above 60 marks which were treated bio-secured farms and below 60 marks treated as non bio-secured farms out of 100 marks (Source: Third meeting 12 November, 2009 of PTDDP Biosecurity Standard Development Committee, Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute, Savar, Dhaka). Within total 90 farms, 51were taken as bio-secured and 39 taken as non  bio- secured farms among three districts to carry out research programme.

Among 90 farms, 21 broiler farms size were 500 broilers, 18 were 600 broilers, 14 were 700 broilers, 15 were 800 broilers, 12 were 900 broilers and 10 were 1000 broilers each. According to farm size, data were summarized meaningfully and were processed by using master tabulation sheet. Farms with non-bio-secured  condition had a number of weakness in bio-security management of which frequent entrance of visitors, no using foot bath, no using lime around the farm, no maintain vaccination  schedule, no proper disposal of dead chick, lake of ventilation, no spray visitors before entering,  indiscriminate use of antibiotics were in major problems. Analysis of data was performed by SAS (SAS 2007) method and comparisons of the results were made between farms with and without bio-secured intervention in terms of productivity and profitability.   

Results and Discussions

Growth performance

Table 1 shows that the highest feed consumption was observed in farm size of 500 than that of other five farm sizes in non bio-secured management farms. Lowest body weight gain with higher FCR was observed in the same farm size probably due to the wastage of feed. On the other hand, highest body weight was found in farm sizes of 500 broilers when bio-secured management was followed. In 500 farms size ate more feed but comparatively lower FCR trend values were in 600, 700, 800, 900 and 1000 farm sizes in both management. In addition, the difference among the farm sizes was not so great. However, lower feed consumption, higher feed utilization resulting in comparatively lower FCR trends observed when bio-secured management was practiced. On the other hand, relatively lower FCR trends were observed in bio-secured managed farm in compared with non bio-secured. Inefficiency in input use, for example, over supply of feeds leading to some wastage due to their inadequate technical knowledge resulting in a lower productivity when the farmers were deprived of training on bio-security management intervention. Average FCR value of different broiler farms was found 1.81 in non bio-secured  management intervention which was close to the earlier report (2.00) of Jaim and Islam (2008) and slightly lower than those of Chand et al (2009) who reported the values to be 1.93 to 1.94. Small-scale broiler operation in Botswana field survey primary data also reported that the inferior feed efficiency values (2.72 kg feed/kg broiler) was result of the poor managerial practices, feed wastage and variable quality of feed (Badubi et al 2004).

Feed consumption had decreasing trends with increasing size of the farm and higher marketable body weight gain resulted lower  FCR  trends under both management conditions (Bio-secured & Non bio-secured) which similar to the findings of  Kawsar et al (2013). Feed conversion ratio decreased trends as the size of the farm increased in the non bio-secured condition and it showed lower trends of bio-security intervention in compared with non bio-secured but the difference between farm sizes was small. This may have been due to the fact that larger bio-secured managed farmers were trained on technical support with bio-security management practices of broiler farming and thus bio-security intervention was practiced properly. Survivability was found to be satisfactory under both conditions probably due to the fact that the broiler farmers were more aware of vaccination. Chand et al (2009) also suggested that the profitability is enhanced if farmers are properly trained to improve FCR value thereby reducing production cost and if bio-security is strengthened to reduce mortality under field condition. Sonaiya (2009) indicated low bio-security as being one of the technical factors contributing to productivity and profitability of smallholder family poultry. Jaim et al (2008) concluded that feed consumption was lower and efficiency was higher in technically bio-security supported farms than that of non-supported farm. FCR values of bio-security managed farm at field level in the present study were 1.80 to 1.66 approximately similar to the value of 1.6kg feed/kg weight gain that would be expected for modern broiler strain at ages of five weeks under improved management conditions (Anon 2001).

Figure 1. Trends to better feed conversion as farm size increases in bio-secure farm	Figure 2.  Trends to better feed conversion as farm size increases in non bio-secure farm	Figure 3. Trends to better feed conversion as farm size increases in both bio-secure and non-bio secure farms

Profitability Analysis

Data related to cost and return were evaluated and the results of benefit cost analysis for profit measurement of broiler farming of six farm sizes are presented in Table 2.

Table 2 indicates that the cost of raising broilers had a negative relationship with the size of the farm. So, larger the farm size, lower the cost of production with or without bio-secured management intervention that would be expected.  Benefit cost ratio was higher trends with an increase in the size of the farm in accordance with Islam et al (2010) and this was found in this study for the both management conditions. In case of farms without bio-security BCR in 500 farm size was 0.94, 600 farm size was 1.04, 700 farm size was 1.04, 800 farm size was 1.06, 900 farm size was 1.14 and 1000 farm size was 1.08 which indicates that farming had a losing concern while bio-security management intervention practiced the profit as the size of the farm increased but were not significantly between with and without intervention (Table 2). Begum and Alam 2009 (2009) reported that the net return per broiler was more and 1.4 times higher in scientifically managed farm than that of private farm that reared broiler without management intervention. Those results are also in agreement with the result of Badubi et al (2004) who reported that a better trained class of farmer, who could effectively seek out and process new information and who could keep accurate financial record, earned higher profit. Jaim and Islam (2008) studied, the impact of technical intervention on profitability of village based medium-scaled broiler enterprise in Bangladesh. On the basis of comparative profitability analysis between with and without bio-security intervention, they concluded that technical intervention could make a significant contribution in alleviating rural poverty by enhancing profitability. In the present study, the results showed that total production cost/ broiler decreased trends as the farm size increased. Return/ broiler increased with increasing size of the farm when the farms were significantly bio-secured managed. But this was not so in non bio-secured management broiler farming. The present study also showed that, as the farm size increased, the BCR was higher trends indicating the possibility of more return if the farm size is further increased. Therefore, the profitability of broiler farm containing 800 broilers is more than those of 500 600 and 700 farm sizes. It seems reasonable to advise the farmers to increase their farm size more than 700 capacity and the farmers are to be trained and/or provided with technical support to earn profits. Regular monitoring on bio-security management practices of the broiler farming may be an added benefit to enhance the production as well as increase profitability. 

Conclusion

• The productive performances and the profitability of broiler farming seems to be losing concern and/or smaller amount of profit in case of farm size of 700 broilers or less in the absence of  bio-security management intervention in farming practices. It is, therefore, concluded that training of the broiler farmers, introduction of bio-security management practices, regular monitoring with adequate poultry extension services are the key elements to get satisfactory result from broiler farming. These might be enhanced better productive performance as well as maximize profitability. However, studies on similar nature with farm sizes of more than 700 broilers would be helpful to generate additional information.

Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful to Dr.  Abdur Rahman  Howlider,  Professor, Department of Poultry Science, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh for helping with statistical advice. Partially financial support was extended by the Concern Worldwide, Bangladesh.

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Received 7 September 2014; Accepted 29 September 2014; Published 3 November 2014

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