Poultry is one of the fastest growing segments of the agricultural sector in India today. While the production of agricultural crops has been rising at a rate of 1.5 to 2 percent per annum, that of eggs and broilers has been rising at a rate of 8 to 10 percent per annum. As a result, India is now the world's fifth largest egg producer and the eighteenth largest producer of broilers. Driving this expansion are a combination of factors - growth in per capita income, a growing urban population and falling real poultry prices.
In the context of this emerging scenario, questions are being raised about the impact of the scaling up of production-through structural factors, externalities and policies-on small-scale producers. Do the transaction costs, policy distortion and environment externalities place the small-scale producer at a disadvantage? Why do some poultry farms have higher income than others? Do large farms earn more profit per unit of output than small ones? What explains the differentials in profitability? This report *, which forms part of an ongoing international comparison study on poultry, seeks to address these questions. It attempts to assess the impact of policy and environmental factors on the scale of poultry operations in India as well as the implications of that impact for small-scale production. The study aims to collect and analyze consistent data.