Naroor,a village in the foothills of the lower Shivaliks in Hoshiarpur district,has become a centre of attraction for several young and progressive farmers in and outside Punjab. Even experts from the animal husbandry department seen visiting the village. The reason: A progressive farmer,his Emu farm and first-ever Emu eggs hatchery of the state. Gunraj Singh,a former honorary wildlife warden known for innovative experiments,started his Emu farm over two years ago with a small unit of five pairs,which he procured from Tamil Nadu. Later,he increased the number of pairs up to 100. At present,he owns a farm with 700 Emu chicks. Over 1,300 chicks have already been sold to other farmers who wanted to adopt Emu farming. Now,going a step further,he had set up the states first-ever Emu egg hatchery a couple of months ago. A wildlife lover,Gunraj has set up a machine with a capacity of hatching 900 eggs. A room has been converted into an intensive care unit and two workers look after the incubation and hatching process round-the-clock. The incubation period of an egg is 52 days and thereafter,it has to be shifted to the hatchery for four days. While more than 100 farmers have already visited his farm from Punjab and neighboring states,several have also purchased Emu from him to run their own farms. According to Gunraj,he has received huge response for Emu farming from farmers in Moga,Amritsar,Ludhiana,Kapurthala,Malout,Khanna in Punjab and Ambota in Himachal Pradesh. This has helped in the opening of around 50 Emu farms over the last one year. Moga is the only district in Punjab where 25 farmers have opted for Emu farming, he added. A one-month-old pair of healthy Emu costs around Rs 12,000 and the rate goes up as per the age of the pair. To help farmers to market their produce,I sign contracts with farmers procuring Emu pairs from me stating that they will sell the eggs (Rs 1,200 per egg) back to me, said Gunraj,ading that Emu has a huge demand as its meat costs around Rs 400 per kg and an adult bird usually weighs between 40 to 45 kg. Its oil,eggs are very good for health, he said. When contacted,Deputy Director (animal husbandry) Dr Jaspal Singh said: At the moment,the department has no plans for Emu farming because it is a recent process. The department will think of imparting knowledge about it to the farmers.
