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| Emu farming reaping gold in Orissa |
| The National Bank for Rural and Agricultural Development (NABARD) pitched in, offering to pay half the interest amount.
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| INDIA
, 3-March-2008
4:37:35 AM |
| The majestic Emu is to be found completely at home in Orissa's Pitatoli village, making it hard to believe that their original habitat is several thousand miles away in Australia.
These birds were hatched and raised here in the past two years under the loving care of D Mohan Reddy, a rural medical practitioner, who was inspired by the successful Emu farms in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.
He borrowed 15 lakh rupees from Rishikulya Gramya Bank and began breeding Emus on his 12 acres of barren land in order to set up Orissa's first Emu farm.
The National Bank for Rural and Agricultural Development (NABARD) pitched in, offering to pay half the interest amount.
''People now ask me whether I earn 10 or 15 lakhs a year. I tell them my target is 50 lakh a year. When people in Andhra are reaping gold out of Emu farming why can't we do that in Orissa? My mission is to ensure we in Orissa do the same,'' said D Mohan Reddy, Owner, Mahalaxmi Emu & Agro Farms, Pitatoli.
Reddy is not being unduly optimistic, as breeding Emus can be very lucrative. Its meat is cholestrol-free and costs up to 400 rupees a kg and its feathers, nails, skin and the oil extracted from body fat are all valuable commodities.
For now Reddy is only selling the chicks, but even though they take 52 days to hatch, its good business.
''A three week old chick is worth 5000 rupees and older chicks could fetch 6000 to 7000 rupees each. If we sell only the eggs we will earn 25000 rupees a year per bird, but if we go for hatching, each chick can give you a net profit of 80 thousand to 1 lakh a year,'' said D Mohan Reddy.
The Emu is a magic bird; it can adapt itself to just any kind of climatic condition. And the fact that it's highly disease resistant should come as a great piece of news to the poultry farm industry in the country, which suffered heavy losses during the last bird flu attack.
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