BONHOOGHLY: Kolkatans’ appetite for turkey this year-end festive season has given over 3,000 women in Bonhooghly, about 25km away, a taste of financial empowerment,
Multiple women, mainly homemakers spread over two panchayat samitis in Bonhooghly – the villages of Balarampur, Budge Budge, Basanti, Canning and Patharpratima – have taken up turkey farming in recent years. For them, it was an easy shift from rearing chicken: turkeys are less fussy about food, more resilient to disease, and take barely five to seven months to grow from “poults” (chicks) to about five to seven kilos.
Turkey farmer Molly Pramanik has earned Rs 26,000 this season from her harvest of 21 turkeys. Her investment was just Rs 10,000, she told TOI. “These turkeys have given me financial independence. Earlier, I had to depend on my husband to provide for our family’s needs. Since I started rearing turkey, my earnings have been more than enough for immediate family needs. And, I have even been able to save up for our children’s education,” she said.
Pramanik, whose daily wager husband earns Rs 300-Rs 350 on days he gets work, got introduced to turkey farming as part of women’s self-help groups (SHGs) in the area which were adopting it as a way to give financial stability to their members. Now, their success has prompted more affluent villagers there to take up large-scale farming of the bird, helping bring down the market price of turkey in Kolkata, and ensuring year-round supply for those interested in putting it on their table beyond Christmas.
“Earlier, we would buy turkey from outside Bengal for more than Rs 600 per kilo,” says Rahim Mollah, a trader in New Market, Kolkata’s largest turkey hub. “But this year, I bought my stock for Rs 420-Rs 430 per kilo from South 24 Parganas and have been selling it for Rs 450-Rs 500 per kilo. The best part is, I am now getting the birds all through the year ,” he adds.
State insulates turkey growers against losses
Bonhooghly (South 24 Parganas): On an average, the 15 or so turkey sellers in New Market sell about eight to 10 of the birds every day in Dec. That’s 250-300 birds (some chicken sellers also sell turkey in Dec), as against one every alternate day, or about 15-20 a month each, at other times.
It started in 2016, when West Bengal Livestock Development Corporation and Ramakrishna Mission Vivekan-anda Educational & Research Institute (RKMVERI)-run Sasya Shyamala Krishi Vigyan Kendra took the first steps to introduce turkey farming in Balarampur and Bonhooghly.
State govt insulates growers against losses and provides them chicks, around 2 kg of feed, and offers to buy back the full-grown turkeys at the state poultry farms in Tollygunge and Haringhata.
A sample study by the state government also indicated turkey’s higher returns. In Feb, the state animal husbandry department distributed 1,000 turkey poults to SHGs and individual farmers. Of them, Dui Pata Mahila Dal (an SHG) got 200, and four local women – Mahua Naru, Pinki Gayen, Rimi Naru and Ujjwala Halder – got 20. By mid-July, the mortality rate was only 13%, and 244 poults. of the 280 had turned into bigger birds, weighing 6.5 kg on an average. Of these, the state bought back 150 at Rs 1,650 per bird, and the farmers sold 94 in the open market at Rs 1,950 each. The income from this was Rs 4.2 lakh. “Women here are married to labourers, rickshaw pullers and construction workers. This turkey farming has given us economic independence,” said Rimi, who is also the SHG secretary.
Sarbaswarup Ghosh, an expert from RKMVERI, said these South 24 Parganas blocks were chosen because of their proximity to Kolkata. “The city is still the single-largest market for turkey. The proximity also reduces input costs, and willing persons can sell them in the open market to fetch higher returns. Turkey is a sturdy bird. It can eat vegetable leftovers and cooked rice. Turkey farming has spread across the district, and more women are involving themselves in this, both as part of SHGs and as individuals.”
(With inputs by Subhojyoti Kanjilal in Kolkata)