Production performance of improved backyard rural poultry in NICRA village of Dhubri district of Assam

Abstract

Altogether 200 nos. of day old Vanaraja chicks were distributed equally among 10 numbers of farmers selected randomly in the flood affected NICRA village of the Dhubri district. The farmers were randomly on the basis of their experience of rearing local poultry and who kept atleast 10 numbers of local poultry of different ages at their traditional system. The data on body weights, age at sexual maturity, annual egg production, mortality, fertility, hatchability etc. were recorded during the study period. The body weights were found to be 497.23±4.23, 1376.06±14.75, 1754.74±23.04 and 2304.63±31.06 g respectively at 2, 5, 10, 12 and 18 months of age in Vanaraja Chicken. The overall mean age at first egg recorded as 177.04 and 201.31 days in case of Vanaraja and Indigenous chicken respectively. The mean annual egg production in Vanaraja and indigenous chicken were found to be 137.12 and 72.16 numbers respectively. The percent fertility in Vanaraja and indigenous were found to be 91.14 and 91.62 respectively. The Vanaraja chicken is well adopted in rural condition of Assam and can provide nutritional and livelihood security to a great extent to rural poor and tribal people.