Marketing strategy of a rural poultry farmer

This poultry farmer whom Anna and I talked to at Pollachi, had an interesting story to tell about the reason why he dyes the chicks.

He has been a poultry farmer for thirty years and the sale price of chicks dropped considerably over the last five years. His son, who was learning painting at school one day took a chick, which he had painted green, to his class room. All of his class mates wanted chicks which were painted in rainbow colors. The farmer was able to sell the chicks for double the normal price. 

That is how he started doing this commercially, by starting a home made dying unit to color the chicks. He used to sell about 200 of them every month. 

But other farmers have also started doing similarly. So he has to bicycle to a distance of 80 kilometers each month to sell all the chicks, he dyes. He says, with families staying in multistory buildings, children are not encouraged to keep pets at home now. He is working on a new strategy of having a farm for broiler chicken, which according to him will yield better profit.

This farmer who studied only up to third standard has worked on sound marketing strategy and adapted it to meet his needs. 

Making changes will be necessary to adapt to circumstances, keeping sound foundations of morality and ethics in all the choices we make.

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)