Most of the people in developing countries are suffering from starvation or malnutrition of protein and energy. Due to an ever-increasing global human population, there is a dire need to produce good quality protein in a large amount to fulfil the daily requirements of these essential items of food. The protein malnutrition is more acute and wide spread than energy malnutrition. Pakistan, along with other developing countries, is also facing the problem of acute protein malnutrition.
The routine diet of an average Pakistani mostly contains cereals and is deficient in protein especially of animal origin. In Pakistan, per capita availability of chicken meat and eggs in the year 2008-09 was 3.5 kg and 50-60, respectively, which is much less than the developed countries, due to lack of focus for development of livestock sector in the past.
In Pakistan, commercial poultry farming started during early 1960 with the establishment of breeding farms, hatcheries, broiler and layer farms and feed mills in the private sector and since then it has shown tremendous development and in recent years acquired the status of a promising enterprise.
The share of poultry sector in national GDP is about 1.12 percent and generates employment (direct/indirect) and income for about 1.5 million people. It’s contribution in agriculture value addition is 4.8 percent and livestock value addition is 9.8 percent. Poultry meat contributes about 24.8 percent of the total meat produced in the country.
The current investment in poultry industry is about Rs 200 billion and it has shown a robust growth of 8-10 percent annually which is likely to increase up to 15-20 percent per annum. However, there still exists a gap between supply and requirement of animal protein in the country, which is likely to widen if concerted efforts are not taken to increase production of animal protein foods.
The situation therefore calls for not only strengthening the existing resources but also exploiting some efficient and cheaper alternate sources of production of animal protein in the country. Commercial Quail production seems to be one of the possible alternate sources possessing bright prospects required to off load pressure on already existing meagre resources of production of animal protein foods.
According to American Ornithologists Union (1983) Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) belongs to class Aves, order Galiformes, family Phasianidae and the Kingdom Animalia like chickens. Quail as a species or sub-species belong to the genus Coturnix and are native to all the continents. Several interbreeding sub-species are recognized, the more important being the European quail (Coturnix coturnix coturnix) and the Asiatic or Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica).
Japanese quail inhabits Russia and Eastern Asia, including Japan, Korea, China, and India. It is a migratory bird, spends winter season in China, Southeast Asia, the extreme northwestern coast of Africa, and other parts of Africa, the Nile River valley from Egypt to Kenya, and Angola.
It migrates to India, northern Japan and Korea in summer season. This omnivorous bird was first kept and bred for song during World War-II. Almost all of the song quail in Japan became extinct during World War-II and it is believed that only few domestic birds survived during World War-II in Japan.
Quail is efficient converter of feed; with each egg a female deposits an edible package of 8 percent of her own body weight as compared to 3 percent in case of chicken.
Broiler quail rearing can be adopted due to the excellent market potential for its meat which is high in protein and less in fat contents. Quail meat is also known for increasing the sexual instinct in human beings. Japanese quails have the excellent potential for egg and meat production and are robust, disease resistant, easy to maintain with less requirement for feed, space and equipment.
AHMED SULTAN
UVAS, Lahore
