Guinea Fowl as an Alternative to Chicken

Guinea fowl is a bird of African origin still semi feral in nature having certain unique advantages over chicken and other poultry species which makes it ideal bird. There are great possibilities for integration with agriculture, horticulture, fishries and other livestock rearing systems. The present paper is an overview of work done on Guinea fowl to popularized it as an alternative source of chicken. The experiment conducted so far on farm and at on farmer's field on growth, production and reproduction parameter clearly revealed that the guinea fowl can be successfully and beneficially reared by the small and marginal farmers as subsidiary occupation to supplement family income especially when the profit margins from agriculture are shrinking and hence it can serve as alternative source of poultry for India.