Evening star., 1962-08-22

INDIAN REPORT
CHECKER
BY EARL II. VOSS
Star Staff Writer
Unlike COWS. chickens are
sacred to no one in India.
The typical family in one OF
India's half million villages
keeps five to 10 chickens. They
roam at will, free to pick up
disease or food scraps wherever
they find them.
The average Indian has no
compunction about eating
chicken, so there is a signifi-
Fourth Of Seven Articles
cant dietary contribution in
eggs and meat from the no.
madic poultry population.
India's Agriculture Ministry
and its American n advisers
agree that chickens provide a
relatively easy way to increase
food production significantly.
The Indians. aware of the
difficulty in changing the hab-
its of the villager, proposed a
campaign to increase the av-
erage family's poultry holdings
from 5 or 10 to Is or 20.
An Experts Idea
To Bill Stopper. a poultry
specialist from Alfred Univer-
sity in Alfred, N. Y, who had
been sent to India by the
Agency for International De-
velopment, this was tackling
the problem from the wrong
end.
Poultry raising is an art, he
says. and should be made the
speciality of a few farmers
working with hundreds and
thousands of birds.
His talk Of American chicken
farmers sounded like pie in the
sky to the villager. Mr.. Stopper
finally found a poultry devel-
opment officer in Gurdaspur, a
city in the Punjab north of
New Delhi, who had studied for
n year at the University of
Maryland and agreed that
mass poultry production could
be made to work.
The Indian, Harbha a n
Singh. a hard-working Sikh,
had been supplying people in
the GurdaSpur region with
chicks from the two poultry
houses he kept at his govern
ment station in the city. He
had the confidence of the viii
layers.
Decides on COOPERATIVE
Bill Stopper decided to start
a cooperative poultry project.
With the enthusiastic support
of Harbhajan Singh, the Min
istry of Agriculture was per-
suaded to look out the win
dow" so it would bear no re-
sponsibility If the project failed
while they arranged Ameican
financing.
Much as the villagers re-
spected H arbhaj jan Singh's
judgment. they remembered
how contagious disease recent
ly had wiped out a whole colo
ny of chickens in Gurdaspur.
How could they risk an initial
investment of 700 to 1000
rupees. even if they got it on
a good long-term loan?
After weeks of consultation
with the villagers and Harbha-
jan Singh, Bill Stopper worked
out this proposition:
He would guarantee the
pioneers" in his poultry-rais-
ing project that none of them
would lose money if their at
tempt failed. The loans from
the American financed Coop
erative would not have to be
repaid. The coop would pro-
vide each member enough ru-
pees to buy 300 chicks, feed,
brooders. watering equipment
everything except the poul-
try house.
Members Contribution
The one contribution by the
coop member, as evidence of
his own good faith, Mr.. Stop
per proposed, should be a poul-
try house to confine the chicks
to sanitary surroundings and
help to prevent the spread of
disease.
Working with Gurdaspur ex-
perts in mud brick construc-
ton, Mr.. Stopper designed a
chicken house that could be
built for 130 rupees, roughly
S29. Even $29 is a huge sum
to most Indian villagers, who
make barely twice that much
in year.
So Mr.. Stopper and his In
dian collaboration, Harbhajan
Singh. had to 60 to some of
the leading citizens and the
two elders in their pilot prof.
ect.
A retired brigadier general
agreed to build chicken coop
in his back yard. A retired pro-
fessor constructed one of real
bricks. next to the orchard he
was tending.
Another early pioneer was a
hide flayer. Samual Nash. His
principal source of livelihood
was the skinning of buffalo
and cattle carcasses, then flay-
ing them to remove the hairs.
IT is considered the most rr1epi-