Poultry Revolution in India

Abstract

Our research on India’s poultry sector reveals that as a result of this fast increase in poultry production, India is now the third largest producer of eggs in the world (producing 122 billion eggs in 2020-2021) after China and the USA, and the fifth largest producer of broilers (producing 4.4 million metric tonnes (MMT) in 2020-2021) after China, the USA, Brazil and the Russian Federation. Two factors acted as catalysts of change: (1) the government policy of liberalizing imports of grandparent poultry stock; and (2) the emergence of a vertical integration model between large integrators/hatcheries and small farmers through a contract farming approach, purely driven by the private sector. It is this “double engine” of policy change by the government and institutional innovation of large integrators linking with small farmers that transformed the Indian poultry sector from a mere backyard activity into a major organized commercial one. In 2020, almost 80 percent of India’s poultry production (in value terms) came from this organized contract farming segment, far more than any other commodity in Indian agriculture.