GUWAHATI, Aug 29 - After running at loss for the past almost two-and-a-half decades, the Assam Livestock and Poultry Corporation (ALPCO) registered a profit during the 2018-19 fiscal.
ALPCO chairman Manoj Saikia said the corporation had been posting annual loss year after year since 1995. However, it registered a profit and generated revenue to the tune of Rs 26.54 lakh during the financial year ended March 31, 2019.
Saikia said many projects of the corporation that were lying incomplete for a long period of time, have been successfully operationalised in the last two years, including an unit at Khanapara in Guwahati, which has a capacity to produce eight lakh chicks per month, a livestock feed processing unit at Sonapur with a capacity of 50 tonnes per day, and a breeding centre for quail birds at Birubari in Guwahati that can breed three lakh birds every month.
Besides, work has also been taken up with the assistance of the Central and State governments on a pork processing unit at Nazira, which was not operational since the past 10 years, where 400 pigs will be kept initially per day both for domestic consumption as well as for export.
ALPCO has taken up training on piggery at Sivasagar and Charaideo districts in a big way.
Saikia said that in the last two years, ALPCO has trained over 10,000 persons, including a number of educated unemployed youths, in the art of poultry and livestock rearing, besides dairy. Of the total, around 2,500 have started their own businesses after securing loans from NABARD and other financial institutions.
Work is nearing completion on construction of three retail outlets to sell good quality meat and dairy products. They are coming up at Birubari in Guwahati, North Guwahati and Kamalpur. In addition, plans are also afoot to set up 10 other such retail outlets at various districts of Assam, Saikia added.
He said work on setting up modern abattoirs are also nearing completion at Lakhimpur, Tezpur, Dibrugarh, Nagaon, Diphu and Bongaigaon, while the one at Jorhat will be inaugurated very soon. Steps have also been taken for the system of leave encashment and gratuity of employees, Saikia said. He said that over the next two years, ALPCO will undertake a series of measures to further popularise livestock rearing and poultry, with special focus on individual households in both rural and urban areas.
