Poultry Definition
Poultry Science
Importance of Poultry Industry
1. Source of Income
2. Source of Food
3. Industrial Uses
4. Use In Research Work
Development of Poultry As A Industry
Historical Background
- It is not known as to when the first chicken was captured and domesticated.
- Archaeological surveys indicate that the fowls were domesticated in China as early as 1400 B.C.
- They were taken to Babylon from India in 600 B.C. and were introduced to Greece and Rome around 500 B.C.
- In India, reference to the existence of poultry farm during Mauryan Empire ( 300 B.C.) is available in Arthashastra of Kautilya.
- Gallus sonneratii ( Grey Jungle Fowl ) found in western and southern parts of India.
- Gallus lafayettti ( Ceylone Jungle Fowl ) found in SriLanka.
- Gallus varius ( Javan Jungle Fowl ) found in lower adjacent islands of Java.
The early efforts to improve and exploit economic potential of Chicken was first made in 1873 when American Standard of perfection was formulated to register various breeds of chicken prevalent at that time. Some of the breeds registered then, exists today also.
The need of more eggs and meat were felt during World War II which gave impetus for the scientific development of poultry industry.
Present Status Of Poultry Farm In India
- The scientific poultry keeping in India was first initiated and advocated by Christian missionaries. They introduced small flocks of improved breeds from their countries.
- In first five year plan (1951-55) Rupees 2.5 crore was spent on poultry development. 33 extension centres were established for supply of improved breeds of chicken to interested farmers.
- During second five year plan (1956-60), projects were initiated to encourage both backyard poultry farming in rural areas and the commercial poultry farming in urban areas. (5 regional poultry breeding farms were established to acclimatize the genetically superior stocks imported from foreign countries.)
- During third five year plan (1961-66), Rs. 8 crore was allocated for poultry programmes. Large scale poultry processing plants were set up in Puna and Chandigarh.
- During Fourth five year plan (1969-74), major emphasis was laid on the expansion of poultry marketing facilities, further, GoI permitted private sector to establish commercial hatcheries during this plan.
Current Scenario in Poultry Farm
The rank of India in egg production is 3rd and it is 7th in chicken meat production in the world (Watt Executive Guide, 2015).
About 3.4 million tons (74 billion) of eggs are produced from 260 million layers and 3.8 million tons of poultry meat is produced from 3000 million broilers per annum in India.
About Rs.70,000/- crores are being contributed by poultry industry to the national GDP. Poultry industry is providing employment to more than 4 million people either directly or indirectly.
A valuable organic fertilizer, poultry litter is produced in huge quantity of about 2-2.5 million tons as a byproduct every year.
The poultry industry is concentrated in certain pockets of the country. The State of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu lead the country followed by Maharashtra, Punjab and West Bengal.
Poultry meat has become popular and is on the rise during the last two decades. 45% of the total meat consumed is the poultry meat and it is the most popular meat from any single livestock species.
In India Chicken dominates the poultry production in with nearly 95% of the total egg production and the rest is contributed by ducks and others (DADF, 2014).
Majority of ducks are found in certain states on the eastern and southern coast like West Bengal, Assam, Orissa, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu etc.
Other species of poultry like turkeys, guinea fowls, ostriches, emus etc. are reared only in small numbers. They are reared only in areas having specific market demand.
For the commercial farming, high yielding crosses are recommended.
Major Constraints Of Poultry Farm Business
1. Availability of Quality Chickens
The standard chicks are often made available either by improved breeding of indigenous germplasm or by importing the improved stocks from developed countries. India is following both approaches.
The other sort of programme to form available the standard stock is importing the improved strains when the local stock is usually poor. This sort of programme is being followed in India.
All India Coordinated scientific research on poultry Breeding aimed to develop suitable strains of egg and meat type chickens, like international standards in productivity and acceptable to industry in light of prevailing agro-climatic conditions and also an effort towards import substitution has been the primary major public sector effort for commercial poultry breeding research within the country.
With mushrooming of private hatcheries and no mandatory quality control over chick production, many poor quality chicks are delivered to the farmers.
2. Shortage of Quality Feed
Almost all feed ingredients going for poultry feed are extracted or deoiled like soybean extraction, deoiled rice polish, deoiled groundnut cake etc.
3. Disorganised Market
Marketing of poultry products is the most serious problem confronting the industry.it is still inn the hand of private traders who exploit it maximum to their advantage. The sufferers are both consumers and producers.
Govt. agencies at state level like MAPDEC, TAPCO, MAFCO etc. could not help much to streamline the marketing. The National Agricultural co-operative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED) has been set up for the marketing of eggs and poultry meat in north India.
4. Export of Eggs
A long term policy decision needs to be taken at the govt. level whether to export eggs in order to regulate local market and to earn foreign exchange or not.
5. Inadequate Health Cover
A project for production of specific pathogen free eggs has been launched to produce high quality vaccines such as Avian Infectious Bronchitis vaccine, Fowl pox vaccine, New- castle vaccine, Gumboro disease vaccine and Marek’s disease vaccination.
But the confidence of poultry farmers has been eroded in sound health cover because they have suffered considerable economic loss due to emerging diseases and often by failure of vaccination programme, breakdown in immunity, lack of adequate diagnostic facility and control services.
6. Lack of Fiscal Confession
Income from poultry farming was exempted from income tax from 1963-1975. During this period there was record growth of this industry.
Aditya Abhishek is an Agriculture Science student who focuses on learning and delivering knowledge on Agriculture and Home Gardening. He created Agriculture Review as a common platform for all nature enthusiast to learn better practices of agriculture and gardening.
