Weblog – News – Views – Reviews

By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) – Four dollar a gallon gas has stolen a beach vacation in South Carolina from Julie Jacobs’ family and exotic bath washes from Angela Crawford. Phil English had to sell his beloved but fuel-guzzling red pickup.

Like a plague that does not discriminate by economic class, race or age, soaring gas prices are inflicting pain throughout the U.S. Nine in 10 expecting the ballooning costs to squeeze them financially over the next half year, an Associated Press-Yahoo! News poll said Monday.

Nearly half think that hardship will be serious. To cope, most are driving less, easing off the air conditioning and heating at home and cutting corners elsewhere. Half are curtailing vacation plans; nearly as many are considering buying cars that burn less gas.

As the price has spiraled upward so, too, has the public’s ire
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DENVER - A nearly 700-page study released Sunday by the Army found that “in the euphoria of early 2003,” U.S.-based commanders prematurely believed their goals in Iraq had been reached and did not send enough troops to handle the occupation.

President George W. Bush’s statement on May 1, 2003, that major combat operations were over reinforced that view, the study said.

It was written by Donald P. Wright and Col. Timothy R. Reese of the Contemporary Operations Study Team at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., who said that planners who requested more troops were ignored and that commanders in Baghdad were replaced without enough of a transition and lacked enough staff.

Gen. William S. Wallace, commanding general of U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, said in a foreword that it’s no surprise that a report with these conclusions was written.

“One of the great and least understood qualities of the United States Army is its culture of introspection and self-examination,” he wrote.

The report said that the civilian and military planning for a post-Saddam Iraq was inadequate, and that the Army should have pushed the Joint Chiefs of Staff for better planning and preparation.

Retired military leaders, members of Congress, think tanks and others have already concluded that the occupation was understaffed.

At least 4,113 U.S. military members have died in Iraq, according to a count by The Associated Press.

Hundreds of commanders and other soldiers and officials were interviewed for the report released Sunday. The Army ordered the study to review what happened in the 18 months after the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s regime. A report on the invasion was released earlier.

The report said that after Saddam’s regime was removed from power, most commanders and units expected to transition to stability and support operations, similar to what was seen in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Commanders with the mindset that victory had already been achieved believed that a post-combat Iraq would require “only a limited commitment by the U.S. military and would be relatively peaceful and short as Iraqis quickly assumed responsibility,” the study said.

“Few commanders foresaw that full spectrum operations in Iraq would entail the simultaneous employment of offense, defense, stability, and support operations by units at all echelons of command to defeat new, vicious, and effective enemies,” it added.

The report said the first Bush administration and its advisers had assumed incorrectly that the Saddam regime would collapse after the first Gulf War.

When Saddam was so quickly defeated in 2003, there was an absence of authority that led to widespread looting and violence, the report said. Soldiers initially had no plan to deal with that. The administration’s decision to remove Saddam’s followers entirely from power caused governmental services to collapse, “fostering a huge unemployment problem,” it said.

Planners in the Iraq headquarters said 300,000 troops would be needed for the occupation. Even before the invasion, some planners had called for 300,000 troops to be sent for the invasion and occupation.

During an April 16, 2003, visit to Baghdad, coalition commander Gen. Tommy Franks told his subordinate leaders to prepare to move most of their forces out of Iraq by September of that year, the report noted.

“In line with the prewar planning and general euphoria at the rapid crumbling of the Saddam regime, Franks continued to plan for a very limited role for U.S. ground forces in Iraq,” the report said.

The report said it wasn’t until July 16, 2003, that Franks’ successor, Gen. John Abizaid, said coalition forces were facing a classic guerrilla insurgency.

Even so, the coalition made some progress, only to have its optimism dashed after the insurgency boiled over in April 2004, when Sunni Arab insurgents and Shiite militias launched violent assaults in many parts of Iraq, the report said.

The authors said the Army had considerable experience and training for guerrilla wars but had not been in one like Iraq since 1992 in Somalia. They said former Secretary of State Colin Powell warned Franks “that he thought too few troops were envisioned in the (invasion) plan.”

Some commanders told the authors they asked about plans for making the country stable and got no answers.

The “post-war situation in Iraq was severely out of line with the suppositions made at nearly every level before the war,” the report said.

Its writers said it was clear in January 2005 that the Army would remain in Iraq for some time, the writers concluded. The report covered the period from May 2003 to January 2005.

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SEOUL, South Korea – A U.S. ship carrying thousands of tons of food aid has arrived in North Korea, after the communist nation agreed to expanded international assistance for its impoverished people, the U.N. food agency said Monday.

The World Food Program said the American ship that arrived Sunday carried 37,000 tons of wheat, the first installment of 500,000 tons in promised U.S. aid that will be distributed by the United Nations.

The aid was not directly related to the ongoing nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang, as the U.S. says it does not use food as a means of diplomatic coercion. However, the shipment came just days after the North handed over its delayed atomic declaration and blew up the cooling tower at its main reactor site.

In exchange, Washington has removed some economic sanctions against the North and said it would remove the country of about 23 million from a U.S. State Department list of state sponsors of terrorism.

North Korea agreed to the new aid program Friday, WFP spokesman Paul Risley said, the same day Pyongyang blew up the reactor tower.

The American food supplies will help the WFP expand its operations to feed more than 5 million people, up from 1.2 million who receiving international aid, the organization said in a statement.

The increased aid comes as the WFP and other groups have issued increasingly dire warnings about the food situation in the North.

The country’s regular annual shortages were expected to worsen this year due to floods last summer that decimated the North’s agricultural heartland. The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization has said North Korea’s cereal crop will fall more than 1.5 million tons short this year, its largest food gap since 2001.

Shortages have already led to prices soaring at the markets to which North Koreans who can afford it turn to when public rations fail to provide enough food for their families.

The U.N. agencies are conducting a food survey expected to be ready in July to determine where to distribute the aid, but the WFP said preliminary reports “indicate a high level of food insecurity in the country.”

Risley said the WFP may have to request additional food donations depending on the results of that survey.

The North has long bristled at the monitoring requirements of international donors to make sure that the food is reaching the needy. However, the WFP said that North Korea had permitted the agency to sent nearly 50 more international workers to the country for monitoring.

“The challenge will now be to put words into action and quickly expand distributions of badly needed food aid to the hungriest people” of North Korea, Jean-Pierre de Margerie, WFP’s Pyongyang-based country director, said in a statement.

American relief groups will distribute 100,000 tons of the aid in two northwestern provinces, with the WFP operating elsewhere.

The U.S. is the largest donor to the WFP’s aid program in North Korea, having pledged $38.9 million, followed by South Korea at $20 million.
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SAN FRANCISCO – Huge crowds are expected for San Francisco’s 38th annual gay pride parade as revelers celebrate their newfound freedom to marry.

Sunday’s parade along Market Street may resemble something of a wedding march. The county clerk’s office was busy Friday handing out marriage licenses and handling wedding ceremonies. Same-sex marriage has been legal in California since June 16, after a state Supreme Court decision.

Overseas, gay pride marches in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia and the Czech Republic city of Brno (BUR’-no) came under attack Saturday by extremists who threw rocks and eggs. No serious injuries were reported.

In Paris, more than half a million people danced through the streets beneath a river of rainbow flags
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Hundreds of lightning-sparked wildfires have turned the air of Northern California into an unhealthy stew of smoke and ash, forcing the cancellation of athletic events and other outdoor activities.

Health advisories urging residents to stay indoors to limit exposure to the smokey air were issued Saturday from Bakersfield north to Redding, a distance of nearly 450 miles.

Air pollution readings in the region are two to 10 times the federal standard for clean air, said Dimitri Stanich, spokesman for the California Air Resources Board.

Some areas are experiencing the worst air quality on record, with the smoke hanging down to the ground like a fog.

Air quality agencies are especially concerned about small-particle pollution. The tiniest particles can penetrate past the body’s immune defenses, traveling deep into the lungs and the bloodstream.

“When you have it on the scale we are seeing now, it is very dangerous to the general public health,” Stanich said. “This is a very serious problem.”

Changing weather brought smoke-clearing breezes and brief relief to some areas Saturday, but it could also bring lightning storms similar to the ones that ignited fires across Northern California a week ago.

Thunderstorms could strike anywhere in the northern Sierra Nevada or the northern Central Valley on Saturday night, said National Weather Service forecaster Johnnie Powell in Sacramento.

The thunderstorms could also bring a small amount of much-needed rain, he said. The front was expected to pass by Sunday, setting up a second week of abysmal air quality.

The renewed threat of dry lightning and stiffer breezes that could stir the wildfires led fire officials to declare a “red flag warning” – meaning the most extreme fire danger – until 5 a.m. Monday for Northern California.

On Saturday, President Bush issued an emergency declaration for California and ordered federal agencies to assist in firefighting efforts in many areas. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had made the request on Friday.

More than 17,000 firefighters, 1,500 fire engines and bulldozers, and more than 80 helicopters and aircraft were fighting more than 1,000 fires Saturday, said state emergency services spokesman Kelly Huston.

“The summer has just begun, and fire conditions will only get tougher,” Ruben Grijalva, director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, warned in a weekly radio address on behalf of the governor.

The fires have destroyed 47 structures and injured 85 people and continue to threaten nearly 10,000 homes, businesses and buildings, according to his department.

A lightning-sparked wildfire in the Big Sur region of the Los Padres National Forest has burned 42 square miles and destroyed 16 homes. The blaze, which was only 3 percent contained, has forced the closure of a 12-mile stretch of coastal Highway 1 and driven away visitors at the peak of the tourist season.

Farther south in the forest, a wildfire that started three weeks ago has scorched 92 square miles of remote wilderness. It was 80 percent contained Saturday.

Stanich, of the Air Resources Board, advised people to stay inside and keep activity to a minimum. Children, the elderly and people with heart and lung problems are particularly vulnerable, but pollution levels are high enough to affect healthy adults.

Health officials have reported an increase in people complaining of eye and throat irritation and coughing. The poor air can also trigger asthma attacks and bronchitis.

Some veterinary offices said pet owners were bringing in dogs and cats with symptoms ranging from weepy eyes and irritated skin to difficulty breathing or unusual lethargy. Vets were advising that pets remain inside until the smoke clears.

Smoky air canceled this weekend’s 100-mile Western States Endurance Run for the first time in its 31-year history. The decision disappointed 370 runners who had traveled from as far away as Africa for the annual race from Squaw Valley at Lake Tahoe to Auburn in the Sierra foothills.

In Sonoma County, the limited visibility kept the Energizer Bunny and dozens of other colorful hot air balloons from lifting off during Saturday’s Hot Air Balloon Classic in Windsor.

Cities also closed public pools, canceled softball games and called off July Fourth fireworks displays. Schwarzenegger urged residents not to buy fireworks this year and said local governments should consider an outright ban, though he would not impose one statewide.

Near Las Vegas, a small plane crashed in a forested area, killing four people and touching off a wildfire that is threatening about 40 homes, said Ian Gregor, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration. Authorities recommended that residents evacuate.

In Arizona, crews fighting a blaze in the Phoenix suburb of Laveen worked to establish a line at a river crossing. About 50 residents of 18 homes were ordered to evacuate in the afternoon but were being allowed to return Saturday night, said Bill Watt with the state Foresty Division. The fire had almost doubled in size in a day and consumed nearly 8 square miles, but was about one-third contained, officials said.
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WINFIELD, Mo. – A makeshift barrier holding back the Mississippi River failed early Saturday, swamping the low-lying part of the small community of Winfield and ending a valiant but ultimately doomed battle against the surging river.

About 300 National Guard soldiers worked nearly 20 hours to build a levee around a cluster of 100 homes in the flood plain after the river ripped through another levee there early Friday. Officials hoped the barrier would keep the water at bay long enough for it to recede.

It didn’t. Still, those in the town of 720 people said they won’t forget the heroic effort to try saving the neighborhood.

“I figured it was a long shot,” said Jan Fox, 50, who finally left her mobile home Friday night when her power went out. She called the show of support overwhelming.

“It was wonderful, all the people who came, the sandbaggers, the military,” she said.

Around town Saturday, gratitude for the last-ditch effort was mixed with a feeling of resignation. Many were ready to move forward.

“It was a valiant effort,” said Chris Azar of the Winfield-Foley Fire Department. “It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t do more, but Mother Nature won. Now, just give it time for the water to recede.”

At a Red Cross shelter at Winfield High School, the sound of hundreds of volunteers’ shovels hitting sand and backhoes transporting sandbags had been a fixture for days. On Saturday the lot was largely quiet, while National Guard troops slept on cots inside after working through the night. A handful of residents, like Fox, began to make plans to stay with family or friends to wait out the river rise.

The new barrier had a steel frame with layers of dirt, plastic and sandbags. But water began seeping below and through around midnight, and it was clear in the hours before sunrise it was not going to hold.

At least 60 homes in the cluster were flooded, Azar said, although authorities were still assessing the damage.

Many other homes in Winfield sit on a hill above the river and are well out of harm’s way.

Winfield, 45 miles northwest of St. Louis, is in Lincoln County, which has been particularly hard hit by flooding caused by torrential rain that fell across the Midwest in early June.

County emergency operations spokesman Andy Binder said 92 homes have been destroyed and 36 others have major damage; 650 can’t be evaluated yet because they remain inaccessible.

In nearby Foley, the mayor requested that anyone who doesn’t live there stay out of town. The wake caused by vehicles driving through floodwaters was causing more problems for already damaged homes.

The Mississippi is receding at Winfield and towns to the north but remains well above flood stage. Crests are expected reach St. Louis on Monday and Cape Girardeau in southeastern Missouri on Wednesday.

Cape Girardeau, where the river’s flood stage is 32 feet, is expected to see a crest of 42.5 feet. At that level, some residents will have to leave and 100,000 acres of farmland will be flooded, the National Weather Service said.

Elsewhere in the state, heavy rain drenched much of southwestern Missouri early Saturday, causing widespread flooding of low-lying areas and roads.

Up to 5 inches of rain fell in two hours in Taney County, where a bridge along Lake Taneycomo collapsed and emergency workers had to evacuate around 15 people from a flooded mobile home park, said Chris Berndt, the county’s emergency management director. No one was hurt in the bridge collapse, he said.

Across the central part of the state, the Missouri River, which joins the Mississippi near St. Louis, is rising because of heavy rain that fell on Thursday and early Friday. The National Weather Service predicts moderate flooding in parts of mid-Missouri by Monday.

While Winfield lost the battle to save its levee, some Missouri towns have apparently weathered the threat.

The levee held at Alexandria, a tiny town near the Iowa state line, and water is receding, allowing evacuees to move back home. A few houses had water inside, but nothing irreparable.

A massive sandbagging effort was still protecting most of the businesses in Clarksville, and water was still high but receding in nearby Louisiana. Both of those towns don’t have levees.
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Actor Christian Bale is handsome, charming, and deliciously mysterious. Though he’s acted since he was 12 – starring in films such as “Empire of the Sun,” “American Psycho,” “The Prestige,” and “3:10 to Yuma” – he cherishes his privacy and is known to evade the press. Example: He’s never publicly revealed the true name of his 3-year-old daughter. He and wife Sibi have been married since 2000. Christian’s father, David Bale, an activist and adventurer, married Gloria Steinem the same year but died just three years later.

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Bale is jumping in the Batmobile again in “The Dark Knight,” the follow-up to his hugely successful “Batman Begins.” And although he remains as guarded as Bruce Wayne, Bale spoke recently with passion about his work and his family.

Your co-star Heath Ledger, who plays The Joker, died tragically after the film wrapped. Do you mind talking about him?

“No, listen, I want to talk about Heath. When you miss somebody, you want to speak about him. He was a unique character, a very infectious character. He was a good man, and I was glad to have spent time with him. He was somebody who I’d been seeing on a daily basis for months. It takes a long time to accept that someone’s gone, when all body and mind are telling you that this is somebody you will know for a great deal of time. He was something of a kindred spirit to myself.”

It must be difficult.

“Much of it has to do with my respect for his daughter, whom he loved so dearly and whom he would talk about so often. For me, that is of incredible importance. I hope in a small way that “The Dark Knight” can be a celebration of his work. Not like the hideous circus after he died, which I felt was an invasion of a private life. This movie is not a personal home video. This is what he did. I hope people will embrace that in the correct fashion. “

Did you have heroes growing up?

“Not traditional idols – certainly not superheroes. I don’t think I was particularly in need of that. I never had any fascination with Superman or Spider-Man or a Batman kind of character. If it happened at all, it was imagined characters that I had invented. My dad was a role model for me. He was a fascinating man. There was intrigue and entertainment growing up with him. He gave me an edict that I still pursue: ‘Life should never be boring.’”

Your mother was a circus dancer for a while, and you never lived in one place very long while growing up. How did that shape you?

“Life is not stable. There is a great strength that comes from not being shocked or scared by upheavals. I wasn’t always, but I am now grateful for that.”

As a parent, do you long for your daughter to have more stability or to grow up with that same unexpectedness?

“I hope that it will be a choice. Standing on my father’s shoulders, I find my life and work are unpredictable always. When it comes to being a father and my family, I’m absolutely predictable. Through the incredible position I’ve found myself in, I hope that with my daughter there will be a choice of stability or constant adventure.”

Has being married and becoming a father made you less of a risk-taker?

“There’s a very hard line you find in yourself when you become a parent, an absolute belief that cannot be questioned. It’s something that you will kill and die for in a way that you never experienced before. I’ve always enjoyed the gray in life. This is an area of total black and white. This is something that is unquestionable.”

How would you describe yourself as a dad? Silly sometimes?

“Absolutely. I’m a court jester. My wife and daughter come with me on location. It’s the most ideal mix. These wonderful distractions actually make me better at what I do.”

Any thoughts on the future?

“I’m accustomed to not having any kind of map for my life. I’d be reaching for an Uzi if I knew what was going to happen every day. If anybody tells me I shouldn’t jump, of course all I want to do is jump and show it can be done.”
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. congressional leaders agreed late last year to President George W. Bush’s funding request for a major escalation of covert operations against Iran aimed at destabilizing its leadership, according to a report in The New Yorker magazine published online on Sunday.

The article by reporter Seymour Hersh, from the magazine’s July 7 and 14 issue, centers around a highly classified Presidential Finding signed by Bush which by U.S. law must be made known to Democratic and Republican House and Senate leaders and ranking members of the intelligence committees.

“The Finding was focused on undermining Iran’s nuclear ambitions and trying to undermine the government through regime change,” the article cited a person familiar with its contents as saying, and involved “working with opposition groups and passing money.”

Hersh has written previously about possible administration plans to go to war to stop Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons, including an April 2006 article in the New Yorker that suggested regime change in Iran, whether by diplomatic or military means, was Bush’s ultimate goal.

Funding for the covert escalation, for which Bush requested up to $400 million, was approved by congressional leaders, according to the article, citing current and former military, intelligence and congressional sources.

Clandestine operations against Iran are not new. U.S. Special Operations Forces have been conducting crossborder operations from southern Iraq since last year, the article said.

These have included seizing members of Al Quds, the commando arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and taking them to Iraq for interrogation, and the pursuit of “high-value targets” in Bush’s war on terrorism, who may be captured or killed, according to the article.

But the scale and the scope of the operations in Iran, which include the Central Intelligence Agency, have now been significantly expanded, the article said, citing current and former officials.

Many of these activities are not specified in the new finding, and some congressional leaders have had serious questions about their nature, it said.

Among groups inside Iran benefiting from U.S. support is the Jundallah, also known as the Iranian People’s Resistance Movement, according to former CIA officer Robert Baer. Council on Foreign Relations analyst Vali Nasr described it to Hersh as a vicious organization suspected of links to al Qaeda.

The article said U.S. support for the dissident groups could prompt a violent crackdown by Iran, which could give the Bush administration a reason to intervene.

None of the Democratic leaders in Congress would comment on the finding, the article said. The White House, which has repeatedly denied preparing for military action against Iran, and the CIA also declined comment.

The United States is leading international efforts to rein in Iran’s suspected effort to develop nuclear weapons, although Washington concedes Iran has the right to develop nuclear power for civilian uses.

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HARRISONBURG – The poultry industry is facing a “silent killer.”

“It’s the worst crisis since the avian influenza outbreak in 2002,” said Hobey Bauhan, president of the Virginia Poultry Federation. “I think this is as every bit devastating or more, yet it’s more of a silent killer in a way.”

Bauhan isn’t talking about a disease outbreak, but rather a federal act that mandates a minimum of 15 billion gallons of grain-based ethanol to be used in fuel blends by 2015, a “renewable-fuel standard” that is set to increase over time.

One study commissioned by the federation estimated that the ethanol program will cost Virginia consumers $455 million more than last year in increased corn prices.

An unfortunate impact, Bauhan said, but one that is only beginning to be felt and understood.

“People are feeling [the rise in corn prices] now more at the grocery store,” Bauhan said. “It’s becoming more and more apparent and evident [what kind of effect the ethanol mandates are having].”

The Cost of Feed

The increased production of ethanol, which can be made from corn, will affect poultry processing companies as well as poultry farmers by driving up the price of feed. Feed makes up 70 percent of the cost of producing a chicken or turkey, Bauhan said.

Corn prices per bushel have gone from $4.60 in December to close to $8 this month, which will result in more than $200 million in increased feed costs for Virginia poultry companies this year, based on a normal corn crop, Bauhan said.

Add to that the very real prospect of a corn shortage from the flooding in the Midwest, and that figure could be substantially higher, he said, all of which hurts consumers down the line.

“Corn costs have tripled in the last two years, and the industry cannot sustain those without passing them on to its customers,” Bauhan said. “Consumers are seeing and will continue to see higher prices.”

This is hurting production at places like Pilgrim’s Pride, which has a plant in Broadway, and has cut back egg placements by 5 percent with the advent of $7.50 corn bushels, said Ray Atkinson, director of corporate communications for the national poultry company.

Pilgrim’s Pride also has let go 1,100 of its 54,000 employees and closed a plant in North Carolina earlier this year.

“What that [mandate] means is that companies can’t produce at the same price as before, and raising prices hasn’t come all the way through the cycle yet,” he said.

Atkinson added that although there are a number of factors leading to high grain prices – including world demand, weather events and fuel prices – the ethanol mandate is the only thing created by the government. Similarly, the mandate is the only thing lawmakers can change.

“Our tax dollars are having the effect of raising food prices and not really lowering energy prices,” Atkinson said.

Supply and Demand

What the ethanol mandates have done to the price of corn stems from a simple economic theory, both Atkinson and Bauhan said: supply and demand.

“It’s analogous to taking $4 gas and then saying we need to take one-third of the gas to use for something else. The timing is horrible,” Atkinson said. “It’s too big of a slice of the food supply to take it out and pretend like it’s not having an effect on food prices.”

About a third of the corn crop is slated to become ethanol this year, Bauhan said.

“We’re not opposed to ethanol per se, but it doesn’t make sense to have food and energy forced by federal mandates to compete with each other,” he said.

But farmers who grow corn for ethanol have an attractive offer, according to the FarmEcon study: More farmers are turning to corn for ethanol due to tax credits, subsidies and import tariffs, and the price of corn has been indirectly inflated by a guaranteed market.

The ethanol market “ought to swim on its own,” Bauhan said. “We don’t have a guaranteed market for our products. It’s an unfair playing field.”

An ‘Immediate’ Solution

With the skyrocketing use of ethanol, poultry industry concerns in the initial stages of the mandate were drowned out, Bauhan said.

But now those voices are coming to the forefront.

Recently, Texas Gov. Rick Perry filed a petition with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a 50 percent waiver from the ethanol mandates, should “severe economic harm” come about, Bauhan said.

“That’s clearly coming about,” he said.

The National Chicken Council added comments to Perry’s waiver petition, saying in a press release that the economic damage from the mandates would raise the price of eggs, pork, milk, chicken and beef an average of 80 percent between 2008 and 2012, as compared to 2002-06.

The comment period for the proposed waiver ended Monday, and the EPA is expected to make a decision later in the summer.

To Bauhan, that couldn’t come sooner: The waiver request, done on a year-to-year basis, represents “the most immediate means available to realistically take the government’s foot off the accelerator of the ethanol policy diverting food to fuel,” he said.

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27 June, 2008 – Livestock officials are looking into the possibility of importing day-old chicks (DOCs) from Delhi and Pune in India to meet the scarcity of poultry and poultry products in the country that has been fuelled by the ongoing ban on the import of poultry products from India.

Two livestock officials are in India to check the viability of this option. They are expected to present a feasibility report to the multi-sectoral task force in Bhutan that would decide if it would be possible to lift the import ban from non-affected parts of India like Delhi and Pune.

The DOCs, if imported, would be reared by the livestock department and sold to farmers at a subsidized rate, according to officials.

Livestock oficials said that, since the ban of poultry and poultry products from India due to an outbreak of bird flu (avian influenza) in West Bengal, it had been tough to meet the demand of farmers and consumers. The recent ban was imposed in December last year.

The demand, according to the chief veterinary officer, Dr Karma Tenzing, was always there. “The import from India helped but, since we have imposed a blanket ban on India, we were unable to meet the demand.”

“Having explored other avenues, there’s no other way but to import from Delhi and Pune on the condition that it will be airlifted. There will be no land travel,” said Dr Karma Tenzing.

Last month, livestock officials brought in 2,520 eggs for egg production service from New Zealand, of which only 585 survived. This result, officials said, was not encouraging and the cost was high. In July, 600 DOCs are to be imported from New Zealand to see if it’s viable.

Officials also said that they tried to source DOCs from Nepal last year. It was unsuccessful as Nepal was not in a position to meet the demand. The cost per chick was as high as Nu 80 in Nepal, while in India, prior to the ban, it was Nu 22. In Nepal, despite the cost, it also posed greater risk due to proximity to West Bengal, said livestock officials. Dr Karma Tenzing further said that they even tried to import from unaffected countries like Europe and America, but it was too expensive.

There are three government poultry farms and three major private farms in Thimphu, Genekha and Gelephu, that are into chicken and egg production. Every year, Nu 200,000 is spent on each government farm.

There are several semi-commercial and small backyard farms owned by farmers in the country. Along with the ban, the demand for pullets shot up over the years, according to officials.

The pullet demand for egg production is 120,000 a year, while the demand for meat production is around 400,000 DOCs a year, according to officials. Of this the government could meet only 20 percent of the total requirement. The rest was met through imports from India.

The ban has served the local poultry farms well. The price of local poultry and poultry products soared every time the ban was imposed.

Today local eggs cost Nu 400 to 450 a tray in Thimphu and chicken costs about Nu 150 per kg.

Dorji Wangmo, a resident of Changzamtog, said, “It’s cheaper to buy meat than eggs. One egg costs Nu 15. It’s been months since we’ve eaten eggs.”

Major (rtd.) R K Pradhan, who owns the Wangchutaba poultry farm, said that supply has been in decline as the cost of production is high.

“We supply a few meat shops in Thimphu for Nu 120 a kg. When production is good, we supply around 300 to 400 kg. Eggs are Nu 200 a tray.”

Last year, 476,848.5 kg of chicken was imported from India. Of that, 1,331.25 kg was rejected. The local production was 73,213.8 kg, of which 1,829 kg was rejected.

The local egg production was 1,614 cartons while 92,362 cartons were imported from India. Livestock department officials, meanwhile, believe that the scarcity will improve in a year’s time. The department has plans to maintain parent stock to offset scarcity in future. They said that the present infrastructure is being upgraded with new equipment.

A poultry breeding centre will also be started in Sarpang next year, which officials say, would help in meeting demand and reducing import from India.

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