Six sick hens
V. Vellappan was branch postmaster of Maniyarampudur village. In 1969, a drought year, he took six country hens to Dr N. Nandagopal, the government veterinary assistant surgeon in Namakkal. The vet told him to raise hybrid layers instead: more eggs, more manure, more income, with the men still farming and the women running the birds.
Four farmers, 400 chicks
In 1970 the vet took Vellappan and three other farmers to Coimbatore, where they bought 400 chicks at ₹3–4 each, 100 per farmer. He visited the thatched sheds every morning, vaccinated the birds and charged nothing. He told them to write down every day’s expenses, buy feed close by, and sell their eggs together through a club.
Write down every day’s expenses.
From a shed to a feed mill
Vellappan grew with loans from UCO Bank and Canara Bank and repaid them. He now keeps about 75,000 layers on four acres and runs his own feed mill making 3–4 tonnes an hour, with maize tested for toxins at a local lab. The 400 chicks became the start of a zone of about 1,100 farms.
Points for a finance reader
- Keep daily records from day one. The vet’s first rule was a cost book. It still is the first rule.
- Own your biggest cost when you can. A farm-owned feed mill puts the largest input under your own control.
- Borrow to grow, and repay. Bank loans built the flock; repaying them built the credit for the next step.