Sustaining the tribal livelihood through scientific backyard desi chicken rearing in Kolli hills, Namakkal district of Tamil Nadu

A total of 71 tribal households belonging to Kolli hills were selected as beneficiaries for Indian Council of Agricultural Research on Tribal Sub Plan scheme project to receive the inputs. The selected beneficiaries were given two trainings viz., scientific rearing and disease management of backyard birds in addition to feed preparation and value addition of poultry products. The impact was assessed after 6 months of implementation through survey from the beneficiaries who received the inputs and trainings. Around 50 per cent of the beneficiaries were having flock size of 4 birds to above 10 birds. Majority (83.33 per cent) of the beneficiaries felt that cage provided was useful for rearing the backyard poultry and required some modifications. About 48 per cent respondents expressed their battle against regular mortality and the major reason for mortality was Newcastle disease, followed by other reasons like keeping improved desi birds in a confined farm premises, predators, etc. The most important household utility was for meat (47 per cent) followed by both meat and egg (26 per cent) and only egg (3 per cent). It was concluded that, 31 per cent of tribes generated an additional income of Rs.1000 to 5000 per year by rearing of the desi birds. Egg consumption pattern did not change before or after the implementation of this scheme and mostly eggs were used to hatch the chicks.