India’s Gujarat Moves to Tighten Livestock and Poultry Feed Regulation

Gujarat has introduced legislation to bring livestock feed, poultry feed and mineral mixtures under a formal licensing, inspection and quality-control framework — a move that could significantly raise compliance requirements across India’s animal-nutrition industry.

The proposed Bill covers the manufacture, storage, distribution and sale of livestock feed, poultry feed and mineral mixtures. The Director of Animal Husbandry would serve as the Controlling Authority, while designated Animal Husbandry officials would oversee licensing and inspections. An expert committee would advise the government on licensing, product standards and implementation.

Strong penalties for adulteration

The proposed legislation sets out substantially higher penalties for feed-related violations.

• Adulterated feed without animal death: up to 1 year imprisonment and ₹5 lakh fine

• Adulterated feed resulting in animal death: 7–10 years imprisonment and up to ₹10 lakh fine

• Sub-standard products: penalty of up to ₹5 lakh plus one-year licence suspension

• Misbranding or misleading trade practices: penalty of up to ₹5 lakh plus three-year licence suspension

The Bill also seeks to prevent the inclusion of prohibited antibiotics, pharmacologically active substances and other adulterants, while addressing sub-standard products and misleading labelling.

Large addressable livestock base

The proposed regulation covers a substantial animal-production base. Gujarat has approximately:

The state has more than 1.0 crore cattle and buffaloes combined and over 2.17 crore poultry, making feed quality a material issue for dairy productivity, poultry performance, farm economics and animal health.

What changes for industry

The proposed framework would require businesses involved in manufacturing, storage, distribution and sale to operate under a licensing system and comply with prescribed standards. Importantly, those standards would also apply to products manufactured outside Gujarat or outside India but brought into the state for storage, distribution or sale. This could have implications across the value chain:

• Compound feed manufacturers

• Poultry-feed producers

• Mineral-mixture manufacturers

• Premix companies

• Feed-additive suppliers

• Animal-health and nutrition companies

• Regional distributors and storage operators

• Interstate and imported feed-product suppliers

Why the Bill matters

For the Indian animal-health and nutrition industry, the significance extends beyond Gujarat. A formal state-level licensing and inspection system could encourage greater standardisation of feed composition, manufacturing controls, labelling and traceability. It may also increase compliance costs for smaller regional manufacturers while creating stronger incentives for documented quality systems, laboratory testing and controlled sourcing.

The proposed law is particularly relevant to Tier 2–4 feed, premix and feed-additive businesses, where regulatory compliance capabilities can vary considerably.

The Bill also explicitly exempts feed prepared by farmers for animals or poultry raised by them, as well as products produced by universities and research institutions for research purposes.

Industry assessment

Gujarat’s proposal could become an important reference point for the wider Indian animal-feed sector if other states move toward similarly structured licensing and quality-control regimes. For animal-health companies, feed manufacturers and feed-additive suppliers, the development warrants close monitoring of the Bill’s final provisions, implementing rules and enforcement standards.