Indian poultry industry stakeholders got a first-hand look at the US agricultural value chain, assessing the safety of biotechnology corn and the potential of non-GM sorghum for feed, during a recent tour hosted by the US Grains Council (USGC).
With 1.4 billion people, India is the world’s most populous country and one of the world’s largest consumers and producers of a range of crop and livestock commodities. Reece Cannady, USGC regional director for South Asia, said the Indian livestock industry is looking for affordable, nutritious and sustainable raw materials to strengthen its poultry production to help meet the challenge of feeding their country.
“This program showed participants the rigorous quality and safety standards of the US coarse grains industry and built further trust in US agricultural products,” said Cannady, who led the Indian tour team with Nayantara Pande, USGC marketing specialist.
The agenda began with a visit to a poultry processing facility in Omaha, Nebraska, US, with support from the Nebraska Corn Board. The agenda continued with biotechnology safety meetings hosted by professors from the University of Nebraska and a tour of the university’s Greenhouse Innovation Laboratory. Operations technology was showcased at several Nebraska corn farms before the team traveled to a Kansas rail terminal.
Pande said the Nebraska meetings helped shed light on the safety of GM animal feed and the environmental benefits of biotechnology implementation in crop production.
The tour wrapped up at Kansas State University’s International Grains Program (IGP), where course manager Dr. Carlos Campabadal spoke to attendees about the US sorghum grading system, storage practices in tropical climates, batching for commercial poultry diets, pelleting and quality assurance among other topics. The course was sponsored in partnership with the United Sorghum Checkoff Program and the Kansas Grain Sorghum Commission.
The USGC said it plans to conduct multiple US sorghum feeding trials in India in the coming year with a goal of showing that US sorghum does not contain tannins and can be used as the primary coarse grain in poultry diets.
Cannady said GM adoption in India will take time, but in the meantime, sorghum could help Indian feed manufacturers meet urgent production needs with a non-GM grain solution.
