Sustainable livelihoods for rural underprivileged women through backyard poultry as a tool

Krishna, Daida, Gurram, Srinivas and Pavan, Anil D. 2020. sustainable livelihoods for rural underprivileged women through backyard poultry as a tool. Indian Journal of Poultry Science, 55(2): 165–168.

Backyard poultry is playing a decisive role in providing livelihood and income to rural poor by utilizing natural resources under the scavenging system. A total of 2500 day old chicks (Rajasree - a backyard variety) were reared under deep litter house up to nine weeks of age. At 10 weeks of age, birds were distributed to 60 women beneficiaries covering four villages at the rate of 20 female + 10 male per each beneficiary which was reared with nominal supplementary feeding. The male and female average body weights and FCR at 9^th week were 611.33 and 525.78g and 3.92 and 4.38 respectively. At the end of the 20^th week, the body weight was 1190.60 and 995.90 g respectively under the backyard system. The average age at first egg and 50% egg production in the backyard condition was 173 and 200 days, respectively. The mean body weight at 52 weeks was 2688.20 and 1823.65g in males and females, respectively. The peak means hen day egg production was 61.24% at 48 weeks of age with an average egg weight of 54.87g. The average mortality during the study period was 14.80 and 9.01% respectively in females and males. All the beneficiaries realized Rs. 6, 18, 406/- through the sale of eggs, chicks, and culled birds. A measure of Rs. 343.55/- was acknowledged from each bird excluding chick cost. The outcome indicated that rural farmers have created Rs. 35.06/- as overall gain every day by keeping up 30 Rajasree birds. Therefore, the present study indicated the importance of adapting the backyard poultry farming for the economic upliftment of rural underprivileged women.