Economic appraisal of rural family poultry production system in Palamu division of Jharkhand

Backyard poultry production is an integral component of rural economy of Jharkhand. The government of Jharkhand supports the rural poultry to address these issues of hunger, women empowerment, poverty alleviation, increase quality animal protein to ensure household food security. An attempt has been made in the study to work out economics of backyard poultry production and major production constraints faced by the poultry farmers. The study based on data collected from 60 backyard poultry keepers selected from three districts of Palamu division during production year 2013. The popular breeds reared in backyard system were desi chickens look like as the red jungle fowl (RJF) birds. These birds had very low egg production of approximately 30 - 40 eggs per year. The respondents reveal that the natural brooding by hen was the prevalent practice to meet the chicks’ demand of the villagers. The age of sexual maturity of birds was 7 months. They reared the poultry birds in 1:5 ratios to maintain male-female sex ratio for egg production and natural hatching. It was observed that they keep 83 per cent of eggs laid by the birds for chicks hatching, 12 per cent eggs sold and 5 per cent self consumed. They set 8 to 10 eggs per hen for brooding and achieved hatchability of 59 percent. The poultry farmers also purchased the grown up chicks of 4–6 weeks age from market for backyard poultry production to minimize mortality losses during early rearing phase. The average flock size of 9 birds was maintained by backyard poultry farmers. They sold male birds in the market after 5–6 months and reared pullets for egg production. The average price was Rs. 8–10 per egg. The chicken sold after 5–6 months rearing fetch price of Rs. 300–500 per bird price. However, the price of culled birds was low as compared to broiler chicken. The backyard poultry rearing cost was Rs. 101 per chicks and they earn net profit of Rs. 186 per bird with B-C ratio 2.85. Poultry farmers sold the birds directly to the consumer at their doorstep or in village market through shopkeepers. They reported that the scarcity of improved breed chicks, poultry disease and losses due to predators were major constraint in further promotion of backyard poultry in Jharkhand. The study concluded that the backyard poultry rearing is the profitable avenue to the BPL families. Its further adoption may address the issues of women empowerment, social welfare, food security and employment opportunities to the farmers with minimum resources investment.