About 80 percent shortage of desi-poultry birds rearing was observed in the region of south Punjab due to increase in demand, said poultry development officer Dr Salma Naz. While talking to APP here on Sunday, she said that south Punjab was hub of desi poultry-birds rearing in past and now locals shifted their focus towards poultry farms, adding that they had less sheds to meet the growing need of desi-chicken.

Dr Salma highlighted that the incumbent government was paying focus on desi poultry rearing. About 3000 desi-poultry birds units, comprising five hens and one cock, will be handed to Livestock Department in second week of February 2020, adding that each unit will be given to masses on subsidized rate of Rs 1050 after balloting. She maintained that Government Poultry Farm Multan was offering thousands of poultry units annually, but it could not meet the growing demand due to shortage of sheds in the farm. Only 35,000 to 50,000 poultry birds could be reared simultaneously. However, they could rear more birds in case they were given some new sheds.

She said that as many as 10 government poultry farms were operating across the province and the people could contact these farms for free consultancy for rearing. She added the underweight birds were directly delivered to people from the government farm through auction. About feed, she said that kitchen waste was enough for rearing poultry birds. She observed that many people were doing backyard poultry rearing with an objective to get eggs and protein rich meat. A healthy hen lay about 250 to 280 eggs in a year, she said. To a question about different types of desi poultry, Dr Salma Naz said that rearing of misri, fumi, golden, australorp and some other hens was common in the region.