BHOPAL: Vinod Meda of Jhabua started rearing Kadaknath chicken about four years ago. Demand for this black fowl increased to an extent that he bought a second hand Maruti 800 a year ago. But, now he is struggling to take his business further. The MP Cooperative department launched a mobile application MP Kadaknath in March 2018 to boost sale of this rare breed. It proved beneficial for Kadaknath rearing farms and enquiries started flowing in from length and breadth of the country. “We are getting inquiries from Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Mysore among others. But we don’t know how to supply them,” said Vinod. “We send them by train, bus and truck but only for orders of more than 50 pieces and if the buyer agrees on bearing the transportation cost, he adds. Improper handling leads to death of chickens in the transit.
About 59 societies are currently engaged in rearing of Kadaknath in Jhabua, Barwani, Alirajpur and Dhar. The mobile application MP Kadaknath gave it an exposure and boost in sale of this black winged bird but now they are facing problem of sending them safely to those places. “We have an agent in Indore, who supplies it further. Government has promised to help us in developing supply network but has done nothing so far,” said Dinesh Ohri of Pooja Kadaknath Murgipalan Sahkari Sanstha, Thandla in Jhabua district. Contd. on P10
After losing hope from government machinery, Raghu Solanki has started developing a network of his own. He travelled to Delhi and appointed an agent in Ghaziabad. He also appointed agents in Kolkata besides Indore and Itarsi. “Impressed by Kadaknath’s nutritional value, one Jaichandran of ECS company came to me and worked on modalities of regular supply. I sent 10 pieces to Bangalore by air that cost them Rs 11,000. But there has been no repeat order since then,” said Vinod.
Poultry farms from Jhabua have also tried sending Kadaknath through trains to Bhopal and Delhi but it adds to pains of packing them properly and completing formalities at the railway stations. The State government claims that they have several upcoming schemes to promote sale of Kadaknath in the country. Cooperative deputy commissioner Prem Dwivedi said that sale centers would be opened in Bhopal and Indore within a week. A storage center is also planned in Mandideep, he added.
