Study of Poultry Farming Practices in Rohilkhand Region of Western Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

The present study was conducted in two districts of Western Uttar Pradesh, Bareilly and Shahjahanpur. A total of 120 organized poultry farmers, 44 in Bareilly and 42 in Shahjahanpur having operational commercial farms were selected for broiler production and 16 in Bareilly and 18 in Shahjahanpur commercial farms were selected for layer production. Data on a well structured questionnaire were collected personally from the respondents through face to face interview technique. The study revealed that the commercial poultry farmers in Bareilly and Shahjahanpur districts were having good knowledge of broiler and layer production. 63.95% poultry farmers had good experience in broiler farming and 61.76% poultry farmers had good experience in layer farming. The knowledge of poultry farmers who were engaged in broiler business was highest regarding selection of strain (mean percent score 83.72), followed by managemental interventions at the time of chick delivery. The layer farmers had sufficient knowledge of regarding optimum chick weight (mean percent score 64.70) and managemental interventions at the time of chick delivery (mean percent score 61.76) in both the districts. The adoption level of poultry farmers was highest regarding time of vaccination (mean percent score 86.04), followed by required dose of vaccines (mean percent score 76.75). However, the farmers had low adoption level to examine the chicks regularly and monitoring the health of birds for broilers production. In layer production practices, record keeping and marketing was ranked highest (mean percent score 85.30). The economics for broiler production showed that in both the districts majority of respondents shared 51.33% of money spent on feed cost, followed by cost of chicks (40.34 percent). The layer producers showed that majority of respondents spent 82.39 percent of money on feed and rest on sanitation, litter, veterinary aids, transportation of birds and feed. Among the important constraints in the districts studied, majority of poultry farmers experienced huge wastage of feed by birds (mean percent score 58.14), followed by the cost of feed for broiler production. The layer farmers realized disagreement of religious minded people with poultry practices, followed by local pressure due to bad smell by near houses in study area. It was concluded that poultry business in terms of broiler and layer production has good prospects in both the districts of Rohilkhand region with a need to reduce the feed cost and cost of chicks to make the business more remunerative.