Success Story Poultry farming: A way towards doubling Farmer’s income.

Bagish Kumar*, Pankaj Kumar Sinha, N. Uttam Singh, Anuraddha Roy, M Thoithoi Devi, Astha Barman, R. Laha
ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya, 793103

Challenges:
            The food taken by the indigenous local tribes of Meghalaya is considered incomplete with the absence of meat. The very commonly available source of meat is from poultry or chicken which many farm families rear in their backyard, mostly consisting of indigenous local breeds that have been reared and maintained with traditional management. But it has been observed that, local breeds have a problem of poor weight gain and lower egg production. Hence, encouraging farmers to rear improved poultry varieties will help them to overcome the constraints of the local breeds and also improve their socio-economic status.

Process:
            In the above context, ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region had introduced the improved Vanaraja variety of poultry which is suitable for rearing as backyard poultry under the Farmers’ FIRST Programme in six adopted villages (viz., Nalapara, Purangang, Borgang, Lalumpam, Umtham and Borkhatsari) of Marngar cluster, Ri-Bhoi district of Meghalaya. Around 5-6 interested farmers from each village were selected and 50 poultry chicks were distributed to each in the month of March- April. Before the distribution, the farmers were instructed to construct low cost poultry houses with locally available materials and also fix bulbs to maintain temperature inside the house. For this, demonstration and training was given on improved low cost poultry housing and other managerial practices for rearing of backyard poultry. 

Impact and Lessons Learnt:
Mr. Mohendro Pambah, from Lalumpam village, was also one of the farmers to receive 50 numbers of one day old chicks but 14 of them died at 5 weeks age. Even after loss of the birds, Mr. Pambah was not discouraged and planned to continue the poultry enterprise. He provides only external feed to the birds @ 15kg feed/week with a cost of `26/kg of feed.  At an age of 4 months, the birds had attained around 3-4kg weight and had started laying eggs with an average of 10 eggs per day. The eggs laid have an average weight of around 60g each. At present he has two male birds and 14 female birds (6 months age) weighing around 5kg and 3kg respectively. Recently, he has sold 8 birds @ `300/kg live weight. Per week the birds lay an average of 80 eggs which is also being sold at `10/egg. Due to absence of a hatchery unit in the village, some of the eggs were incubated and given for hatching in the ICAR Research Complex from which he received 20 chicks.

Economics:
On an average, he has received an amount of ` 8600 from selling eggs and ` 7800 by selling live birds giving him a gross total income of ` 16,400. His total expenditure for feed and other inputs in 6 months has been found to be ` 8250.  He plans to extend his poultry unit and set up a hatchery unit in the future.

Contact details of the Farmer for further information:

Name: Mr. Mohendro Pambah
Age: 42 years
Phone: 8575689157
Education: Graduate
Address: Lalumpam village, Marngar
Land holdings: 8 ha
Livestock: Poultry