Article: Farmers’ anger reaches b(r)oiling point

Thursday July 23, 2009

By GLADYS TAY

NUSAJAYA: Some 100 broiler chicken farmers dumped 4,000 chicks in protest in front of a government building housing the Veterinary Services Department in Kota Iskandar.

The farmers, from various parts of the state, were angry over the abolition of an incentive scheme for farms that have more than 20,000 chicks.

Police were called in to handle the situation.

With the chicks running about outside the building, the farmers handed over a memorandum to the department's director requesting for the incentive to be reinstated.

Farmers representative Gan Heng Kock said the Agriculture and Agro-Based Industries Ministry had announced an incentive by which farmers with more than 20,000 chicks would be paid 26sen per kg for 60% of their total production.

"This announcement was made in May last year ... It was a scheme to help us reduce our burden but was abolished a month later," he said, adding that there were small and medium poultry farmers who really needed financial aid as they found it hard to cope with rising operational costs.

Gan also said that farmers with less than 20,000 chicks were paid 78sen per kg for 60% of their total production.

He explained that the Federation of Livestock Farmers' Association of Malaysia had told the ministry that they preferred the abolition of the ceiling price for chicken.

He added that it was unfair to scrap the incentive as livestock farmers were allowed to apply for a similar scheme without quota.

"This is a discriminatory practice and unfair to broiler farmers."

Muar and Segamat Poultry Far- mers Association president Datuk Ghai Soo Ming, who arrived at the building about an hour later, said he had advised the farmers not to carry out the protest.

The department could not be contacted for comment.

This article was taken from: The Star Online: Nation 23 July 2009