The bird flu panic has claimed its first victim in Maharashtra — faced with a failed business and burdened with debt, a small poultry farmer of Rampurwadi in Ahmednagar district committed suicide this Monday.Thirty-three-year-old Nanasaheb Baba Agre had three children and his parents lived with him. He had a small piece of land, now lying barren because of the drought.With chicken prices falling — he sold his last flock of 3,000 birds at Rs 12 a kg — and debts to feed manufacturers and chick sellers mounting up to Rs 3.5 lakh, Agre didn’t know where to go for fresh funds. On Sunday night, he went missing; a day later his body was found on the railway tracks.‘‘Agre was depressed. His step has shocked the families of the 350 poultry farmers in the area,’’ says Yashwant Dadkar, a veterinary doctor, who visited Agre’s family after the mishap. ‘‘I hope no one else has to die. I appeal to the government to wake up to the need of these small poultry farmers,’’ says Anuradha Desai, chairperson of Venkateshwara Hatcheries, who met Union Health Minister Sushma Swaraj recently to apprise her of the situation.There are about 10,000 small poultry farmers in Maharashtra, with the highest concentration being in Nashik and the Pen-Panvel belt. Says Kaka Zambre, president of the Maharashtra Broilers Poultry Association: ‘‘The government should compensate our losses. We need financial help urgently.’’
