TNI Bureau: Egg prices in Odisha have doubled within the past two months, going up from around ₹5 to ₹9 per retail market egg, while prices of chicken have rocketed to ₹300 per kilogram. This price increase is due to an increase in feed prices, extreme summer heat leading to increased mortality rates of poultry, and an increase in exports to Asian and African countries.

While Odisha produces approximately 1.27 crore eggs each day, this is not enough to meet the demand of the state, which reaches up to 900 crore eggs annually. The state government provides subsidies up to 50 percent under the scheme of Chief Minister’s Krushi Udyogi Yojana to produce 2 crore eggs each day. However, since eggs are sold on an open market, private producers still have the liberty of exporting when the profit margin is more.

These skyrocketing costs have caused immense problems for government-sponsored nutrition schemes such as the ICDS scheme, wherein eggs costing ₹9 per unit in the market are provided at just ₹5 to the Anganwadi centers with a total allocation of ₹7.82 per person per day, leading to difficulties in providing eggs regularly. Hence, children are deprived of their proteins and only get simple meals like rice and dalma.

While it can be expected that market prices will be normalized as production goes up, and further negotiations take place with the poultry units, but in order to save vulnerable households and support the grassroots level nutrition schemes, it becomes imperative to fill the funding gap in Anganwadi centers.