Layer poultry farming means raising egg laying poultry birds for the purpose of commercial egg production. Layer chickens are such a special species of hens, which need to be raised from when they are one day old. They start laying eggs commercially from 18-19 weeks of age. They remain laying eggs continuously till their 72-78 weeks of age. They can produce about one kg of eggs by consuming about 2.25 kg of food during their egg laying period.
India is third largest egg production and fifth in chicken meat producer in the world. India has a population of 1.2 billion and 50% of India's workforce is in agriculture. The total egg production has increased from 27.33 Billion during 2015-17 (Rainy) to 29.09 Billion during 2016-18 (Rainy) registering a growth 6.42%. As against the targeted production of 87.05 Billions of eggs during 2016-18, the total estimated production in two seasons, summer and rainy, is 55.11 Billion showing an achievement of 63.31%. As a whole there is a good scope for new entrepreneur to invest in this business.
Few Indian major players are as under
· C & M Farming Ltd.
· Hemanth Poultry Farms Pvt. Ltd.
· Hi-Tech Layer Farms Ltd.
· Jai Maakali Poultry Products Pvt. Ltd.
· Kasila Farms Ltd.
· P S P Farms Pvt. Ltd.