World Egg Day: Making Ladakh egg sufficient

8 October 2020

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By: Arif Pandit

Eggs are one of the few foods that are eaten in the world as an integral part of the human diet, as they provide every aspect of food that the human body requires. They are also the most wholesome of animal foods, and typically the cheapest. An egg is an egg for most individuals, and if eaten fresh, they are alike. This is a big mistake, as they also vary in size, shape, taste, weight, and colour.

Near modern-day India, the original jungle fowl were domesticated around 3200 B.C. In Chinese and Egyptian documents dating back to 1400 B.C, evidence of laying egg consumption from domesticated chickens is found.

In egg white, the protein is of such high quality that it has become the benchmark that other proteins are judged against. Many vitamins and minerals, including vitamins A, B₁₂, D and E, are found in egg yolk, plus riboflavin, folic acid, iron, zinc, phosphorus, selenium, and choline. It is one of the few vitamin K sources.

In the developing world, however, shell egg consumption in the last three decades has decreased or levelled off, mainly due to consumer expectations of its cholesterol content.

Most people in the region of Ladakh, particularly Changthang, are totally dependent on eggs produced in other parts of the country. With a meagre population of twenty thousand poultry birds, with more than 90 % of the total poultry population made up of chicken, Ladakh imports eggs in enormous quantities.

In the last two decades, the growth of the poultry industry in India has been remarkable and has reached a level of self-sufficiency. However, in Ladakh, where it is a backyard venture with extremely limited numbers of birds, the picture is even worse. The lack of commercial hatcheries, problems with the transport of day-old chicks and the lack of poultry feed are still major barriers to the expansion and popularization of poultry farming in this area.

Food here in Ladakh is generally terribly expensive, but fresh fruit and vegetables cost three to four times what they would elsewhere. To fix the issue, numerous new greenhouse projects are underway. The climate in Ladakh prohibits us from growing fresh vegetables outdoors, but a greenhouse helps us to encourage some greens and cold-hardy treats to enjoy, even one that is solely heated by solar power.

As a solution, backyard poultry owners should use greenhouse heat to keep their chicken alive during winters as a way forward. In the same building, a greenhouse chicken coop meets the demands of both flora and fauna. Plus, during the colder months, your chickens will always survive in your greenhouse, using it as a shelter from the rain and the summer sun.

A greenhouse chicken coop does not give the chickens the free flow of the entire greenhouse. It will be a disaster here. You will still need to keep your poultry out of your indoor greenhouse with netting and/or wire fencing. The idea of incorporating a greenhouse and a chicken coop for permaculture enthusiasts is nothing new. But it would be the first of its kind in Ladakh to facilitate the production of poultry and eggs.

The use of this permaculture design has many benefits. One, as birds eagerly scratch up the soil and shred of plant residue, introducing new micro-organisms and providing soil aeration, will remove certain plant diseases from greenhouse soil. Second, as a supplementary heat source for a greenhouse, the excess heat produced by chickens could be used in a coup. The increased exchange of plant oxygen and chickens’ carbon dioxide is also an advantage, as it is used by chicken manure for compost for greenhouse use.

By lining the winter greenhouse with electronet fencing and deep mulch, the problem of overheating can be resolved, enabling the chickens to free-range outside during the day, and bringing them into the greenhouse to roost at night.

However, this approach may have disadvantages, but the author strongly believes that brainstorming is necessary and requests the Ladakh government and Indian Council of Agriculture Research to help complete the demonstration project that KVK Nyoma, Leh II wants to undertake in order to make Changthang self-reliant in egg production.

The author is SMS/Junior Scientist (Animal Science) Sher e Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir.