Backyard Poultry Farming: a Means of Sustainable Livelihood for the Rural Tribal People of Keonjhar District

Poverty and a degraded environment are closely inter-connected, especially when people depend for their livelihoods primarily on the natural resources of their surrounding environment. The tribal economy in Odisha is primarily subsistence oriented and based upon a combination of agriculture, forestry and wage labour (ODR, 2002). Scanty land holding, land fragmentation and seasonal agriculture are not able to provide full employment to the workforce which in turn creates unemployment. Backyard poultry farming require hardly any infrastructure set-up and besides supplementary and steady generation, rural backyard poultry can improve food sufficiency, can also unleash human productivity, encourage women and unemployed youth, and bridge the gap between demand for and production of eggs and meat. The study was conducted in Keonjhar district of Odisha. 110 respondents who were engaged in poultry farming were selected as sample for the study. Majority were medium producing poultry rearers with a medium to low level of knowledge regarding breeding and rearing practices.