Abstract

A study was conducted in two taluks of Thrissur district of Kerala state, India, to assess the socio-economic profile of poultry farmers, production of birds, health care and marketing and constraints in backyard poultry production system. The poultry farmers were aged above 45 years in both Chalakudy (68 per cent) and Mukundapuram (60 per cent) taluks. Higher proportion of respondents were female in both taluks. In Mukundapuram taluk, most of the farmers (72 per cent) belonged to small (≤4) family size. About 40 per cent of farmers had large land holding in Chalakudy and 52 per cent of farmers had marginal land holding in Mukundapuram. The most of the farmers had previous experience in poultry farming. The eggs produced were used for home consumption by 92 per cent of respondents in Chalakudy and 96 per cent in Mukundapuram. The computed overall mean number of eggs produced per year was 225.56 ± 83.65 in Chalakudy and 230.28 ± 23.25 in Mukundapuram. The mean egg weight ranged from 31.92 to 32.04g in Chalakudy and Mukundapuram respectively. Attack of predators, high feed cost, diseases and shortage of adequate germplasm were the major constraints faced in the present study.

Keywords : Backyard poultry rearing, socioeconomic profile, production, healthcare and marketing