The adoption of agri technologies has matured in India to a large extent. The poultry industry has witnessed monumental numerous transformational technological adoptions. This translates to enhanced traits in terms of egg production, growth rate, livability, disease resistance, feed efficiency and egg and meat quality. Modern tech enables a higher rate and persistence of egg and meat production, better feed efficiency, egg size, egg quality, muscle mass, carcass quality, feed efficiency and livability in boilers. The country’s poultry sector has shown immense growth which is reflecting in its ongoing operations. The sector can be marked as one of the fastest-growing sectors of the country with its trade wheels helping India to build a stronger economy. India ranks third in egg production and fifth in meat production with a total population of 851.81 million (20th Livestock Census, 2019) which reveals an increase of 16.8 per cent over the previous census i.e. 729 million.
Egg and chicken are wholesome, nutritious food with high nutrient density because, in proportion to their calorie count, they provide the required amount of daily protein and a wide variety of other nutrients. They are rich in vitamins, essential amino acids and minerals such as vitamin A, B6, B12, folate, iron, phosphorus, selenium, choline and zinc etc. However, currently, India’s poultry sector is going through a transitional phase from being manual to digital. Apart from increasing the production capacity of this sector, this transformation is likely to enhance the quality of the output. With the demand of eggs and poultry meat rising in India, this transition cycle can be considered as the right card placed on the gambling table.
In the last two-three decades, a lot of technology along with orthodox breeding methodologies has been infused into India’s poultry sector to genetically enhance traits such as egg production, growth rate, livability, disease resistance, feed efficiency and egg and meat quality etc. The significant impact of modern technologies can be seen in the layer and broiler segments of the poultry industry. The technologies used support higher rate and persistence of egg and meat production, better feed efficiency, egg size, egg quality, muscle mass, carcass quality, feed efficiency and livability in boilers.
Elaborating on the importance of technology in the poultry business, Tarun Gupta, Co-Founder, Henfruit stated, “Technology is the key in any trade and in poultry business it is like oxygen. This trade being very fragile requires some of the best technologies coupled with conventional trading methods in order to meet the growing demand of the customers.”
“For instance, if you are dealing or doing business with corporate firms then you know that you need to keep churning your supply chain as the orders keep coming up but the situation changes drastically when you are dealing directly with customers. Now, the trader has to take technological assistance to store and supply his product. One needs to maintain a technologically advanced cold storage facility when doing business on a B2C model,” he added.
Modernisation of packaging to reduce wastage
Egg, being a fragile product, understandably, needs extra care while being transported. A rough figure suggests that around 20 to 25 per cent of eggs produced in the country get wasted during the transit. It is mainly due to two reasons either packaging or condition of roads. In order to reduce wastage, many companies including startups have come up with multiple packaging solutions that provide extra cushion to the produce.
Packaging, an innate segment of the polymers and advanced materials industry, has been witnessing significant evolution in the terms of manufacturing technology, over the past few years. The manufacturing technology across the packaging sector has massively improved to the point that the final products can boast of a much smoother surface and more sophisticated feel and look.
There two major stages of packaging eggs go through before they end up in the hands of customers. In the first stage, when the egg is transported to the dealer, it requires extra cushion because of its freshness so most of the farmers use walled basket packaging which is filled with odourless rice husks, wheat chaff or chopped straw. Another form of packaging used in this stage is called filler tray packaging, filler trays are made of wood pulp moulded to accommodate the eggs. They are constructed so that they can be stacked one on top of the other and can also be placed in boxes ready for transport. Filler trays also offer a convenient method for counting the eggs in each box, without having to count every single egg.
On the second stage, when eggs reach dealers’ cold storage and need to be transported to distributors, most of them are packed in hard moulded boxes in combination of six and 36 eggs in a pack.
Vacuum packaging for longer shelf life
Extension of the shelf life of meat and poultry products is one of the technology needs to meet the demands of consumers and vacuum packaging (VP) can be considered as one of the aces to enable industry to achieve this goal. Vacuum packaging refers to packaging in containers (rigid or flexible), from which substantially all air has been removed prior to final sealing of the container. This method of packaging is actually a form of ‘modified atmosphere’ since normal air is removed from the package.
Shan Kadavil, Co-Founder and CEO, Fresh To Home stated, “Vacuum packaging helps the traders and the customers to retain packed food for a longer time. For instance, usually a processed chicken in normal packaging can be retained for a maximum three days but with vacuum packaging, its shelf life increases to 15 days. It is possible as this type of packaging avoids bacteria proliferation and avoids useless food waste by promoting much more responsible food consumption.”
Echoing a similar voice, Siddhant Wangdi, Founder and CEO, Meatigo stated, “Apart from retaining freshness of the product for a longer time, VP protects the product from freezer burn and dehydration. Freezer burn occurs when air comes into contact with water crystals around food. Vacuum sealing helps prevent this by keeping the air out of contact with the food. Freezer burn is not a danger to one’s health, however, it ruins the taste and texture of the food.”
There are some other advantages of VP such as it reduces storing space, enhances the taste, no chemical preservatives required, saves money on bulk orders, reduces wastage of food, and is quick and efficient.
Smart poultry farms with IoT
The Internet of Things (IoT) which has done wonders in many businesses and trades can prove a real catalyst in fostering the country’s poultry sector. IoT solutions give real-time access to information, bring speed to business operation, save ample time and help many industries overcome their major challenges. Similar usage of IoT in the poultry sector will help breeders and farmers to switch over from orthodox manual farming methods to smart poultry farming solutions.
An intelligent network and data processing system can create a new poultry farming infrastructure in India. With the help collected data on a real-time basis, farmers can monitor the health of birds, their growth scale, amount of feed to be given and other necessary steps to be taken in future.
Like any other sector, data management plays a vital role in the poultry sector. The data of broiler farms include the number of birds, feed, mortality, production, and much more. By embedding IoT solutions in their farm, farmers are well equipped with a system that can record the data, store it, and process the historical data for any query or information.
Adopting a similar concept, an IoT startup, MLIT, devices a system called PoultryMon that works with incubators at the hatchery and at the farm and allows remote monitoring and management. Launched in 2017, the system has provided a much needed technological assistance to the hatchery owners as its sensors provide real time data on temperature, humidity and other required information to the hatchery workers and owners.
Srinivas Chindam, CEO, MLIT stated, “With a view of connecting poultry farmers with technology, we created PoultryMon system. The whole idea behind this discovery was to help farmers increase their production while not compromising on product’s quality. Moreover, this system enables hatchery owners to replace old orthodox methods of hatching with digital technology which is more potent in solving various hatching issues.”
Nitin Konde
