Appraisal of socio-economic profile and general knowledge of rural respondents about backyard poultry farming in northern India

The study was conducted to appraise the socio-economic and nutritional status of the schedule caste families and to assess their general awareness about backyard poultry farming. The information on respondents from twelve villages of Hisar district in Haryana state were collected through a standard questionnaire and analyzed. Majority of the respondents (50.48%) were young (18–30 years) and most of them were males (72.84%). Labour was the main occupation (70.60%), followed by no wage earner (18.21%) and more than one third were illiterate and only 2.56 per cent were having graduation or higher degree. About 60 per cent of the respondents consumed milk daily while rest consumed it on weekly basis and about 67 per cent respondents consumed meat on monthly basis whereas 24.28 per cent were consuming it on weekly basis. Respondents had knowledge about housing (36.74 to 87.14%), feeding (5.79 to 97.11%), breeding (33.12 to 91.69%) but had little knowledge about diseases and health practices (6.11 to 31.09%). It was concluded that the schedule caste families did not have sufficient knowledge about scientific backyard poultry practices as well as lacked in adequate dietary pattern. The findings of the present study pointed towards the need of awareness programs to improve the socio-economic and nutritional status of schedule caste families.