Empowerment of rural women and sustainable livelihood through native chicken farming in Karur district of Tamil Nadu

Empowering rural women through native chicken farming

Abstract

In order to provide sustainable livelihood to economically weaker sections of society by facilitating subsidiary income and supplemental nutrition, a rural poultry rearing scheme was implemented in Karur Paramathi block of Karur district of Tamil Nadu. Inputs such as Aseel birds, cages, feeds and health care were provided to 8 common livelihood groups comprising of 300 members. Capacity building activities related to rearing of birds, operation and maintenance of feed grinder, egg incubator and vaccination of birds including ethnoveterinary practices were imparted. Performance assessment was done one year after the input supply. Mean number of birds alive per beneficiary was 4.78 ± 0.11. Mean number of eggs consumed per day per family was 4.3 ± 2.12. Overall hatchability (%) of eggs was 68.2 ± 0.03. Supplementary income to the tune of INR 1200 ± 47 per month per family was recorded. The adoption (%) of various key technologies involved in rural poultry farming varied from 15.0 to 98.66 percent. The adoption of technology towards health care was more than 72 % as compared to others. The major constraints faced by the scheme beneficiaries while rearing native chicken was loss of young chicks by predator attack and conflicts among the users of egg incubator. From this study, it can be inferred that rural poultry rearing scheme was found to improve the livelihood in economically backward areas and enhance nutritional status of family.