Propagation of backyard poultry farming for nutritional security in rural areas

Abstract

Poultry production has been a household activity in India since time immemorial. India ranks 3rd in egg production and 7th in chicken meat production in the world. In India most of the commercial poultry production is concentrated in urban and peri urban areas. Backyard poultry farming plays a major role in the rural economy and women empowerment. Though, still it is contributing 30% to the national egg production, the rural backyard poultry is the most neglected one. The major limiting factor in the way of increasing consumption of egg and poultry meat in the rural area is the poor availability. The demand of eggs and meat of rural areas to be met by backyard poultry rearing. Backyard poultry rearing also finds an important role to fulfill the need of stress free and harmful residues free birds. The sale price of eggs and birds on free range rearing were much higher than the sale price of commercial eggs and broilers.