New Delhi, Mar 29 (IANS): First the rumours that consumption of chicken can cause coronavirus, and now the lockdown. The poultry industry across the country is reeling under a double whammy.

People involved in poultry business say they are not even able to procure feed and other essentials for poultry to keep them alive.

A poultryman from Haryana said that neither the feed for chicken is available nor there is any way to transport chickens to the market due to complete lockdown. He complained that police don't allow them to transport chickens to the market.

Vijay Sardana, an agricultural economist and adviser of the Poultry Federation of India, said that police need to be updated about maintaining supplies of essential commodities and chicken comes under this category.

Sardana said poultrers are not able to even recover their cost of production as the price of chicken has fallen drastically due to low demand.

A poultryman Santosh Kumar said that though the rumour about catching coronavirus due to consumption of chicken and fish has been removed from the minds of people, yet the demand is low, because of the lockdown and other measures to contain coronavirus.