Poultry farmers of Ri-Bhoi are facing stiff competition from cheap imports of chicken brought into Meghalaya from other states and are finding it impossible to earn a livelihood.
Highlighting their grievances, poultry farmers, particularly from the Umsning area, voiced their distress today.
Speaking to reporters, Donbor Marbaniang, a local poultry farmer, urged the state government to take immediate action to address this issue. He stressed the need to regulate the sale of poultry imported from outside the state, which, he claimed, is being sold at unreasonably low prices, thereby undermining the livelihood of local farmers in Ri-Bhoi and other parts of the state.
Marbaniang further appealed to the government to establish or enforce existing checkpoints to monitor and control the sale of poultry entering the district and state. He said that poultry imported from outside should not be sold at prices that disrupt the local market. Ensuring price parity between locally raised poultry and imported poultry is essential to safeguard the livelihoods of farmers in Ri-Bhoi and Meghalaya, he added.
