A CORRESPONDENT
JORHAT: The Jorhat district administration has decided to revive the government poultry farm situated at Bagchung, about 8 km from Jorhat town, to make unemployed youths self-employed.
Jorhat Deputy Commissioner Ashok Kumar Barman inspected the farm along with veterinary officials and assured funds to the Veterinary department to make the farm functional and impart training on poultry farming to the unemployed youths of the locality.
Barman said that there was an incubator for 12,000 hatchlings which was still in working condition, a chick feed mill which had become dysfunctional due to no use and the hen coops which were in a deplorable condition.
Barman said that during the pandemic times when the economy had been badly affected, unemployed youths could find some form of self-employment and become independent if they opened a poultry farm for which training would be given to them.
Jorhat district veterinary officer Bhupen Das said that the poultry farm had become defunct in 2015. "We have skilled manpower to operate the machinery which can be repaired or upgraded. The incubator is still working and it will be good if the farm is revived," he said.
Das said that it would boost the rural economy if the youths take to backyard farming and a few households could supply eggs and meat for the entire village. The farm at Bagchung had been revived in August, 2011 with 2-3 day old Kalinga Brown stock of chicks brought from the Central Poultry Development Organization in Bhubaneswar.