If the present situation continues for few more days a majority of small farms having below 20,000 birds will have to down shutters, Seshaiah told The Financial Express. There are about 15,000 poultry farms in the state while over 70 per of them are middle and small farms.

According to industry sources the egg production cost has gone up in the recent months with the increased feed cost while the egg prices are showing downward trend. This has further effected the health of the industry as egg production has doubled thanks to capacity expansion in the previous year.

The situation has been particularly grim in recent months as demand in the summer months is at its lowest. As per the industry estimates, the state produces about 3.5 crore eggs per day while itjust consumes 1.25 crore eggs a day. Earlier, AP eggs used to be exported to Maharashtra, Orissa, Gujarat and other states, which are known as traditional consumption centres. But, in the recent past, the egg production in these states too has increased closing the export opportunity to AP poultry farmer.

Coming to maize, a major feed for layers, the prices have gone up by over 30 per cent in the last few months. As of now, maize is priced at Rs 6,500 per tonne as against Rs 4,000 per tonne in the last two months. Even the prices of cereals such as; baazra, ragi, zawaar, param etc, have also zooming by 20 to 30 per cent over the last months prices.

According to Seshaiah, the sudden escalation in the feed price has resulted in the raise of production cost by 17 paise more per egg increasing the total cost per egg to Rs 1.27. However, the wholesale price of egg in Hyderabad is at Rs 1.05 each incurring a loss of 22 paise per egg to farmer.

In a bid to reduce the feed cost the federation has approached thecentral government with a request to supply maize through NAFED at subsidised prices on par with other farm products, Seshaiah said.