Backyard Poultry in Balochistan

Copyright © 2014 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT: The term backyard poultry production designates chickens reared on small scale at household level. The first chicken was lured from the rain forests of Southwest Asia over 3,000 years ago. Since then chickens have been kept for meat and eggs throughout the word. In Balochistan province of Pakistan nearly all rural families keep a small flock of poultry to have a steady supply of fresh eggs for household consumption and to sell surplus at the local farmers market. Household level poultry production is mostly owned by women and managed by women and children. The profits are usually low as mostly Desi type chickens are reared with low egg and meat production. For increase in production and household income rearing of improved backyard poultry breeds is of utmost importance. During past 50 years through genetic research many high producing chicken breeds have been developed world over. These new breeds are well adapted to different climates and can be reared in both intensive and free range systems. The present study was conducted in the rural areas of five districts of Balochistan, where majority of people are dependent on livestock and poultry. The main objective of this research was to investigate economic status of rural poultry in the study area. Compilation of study data concluded that backyard poultry farming is commonly practiced in our rural area, mainly for family consumption and as a small income generating unit. The average number of birds kept is 12. Information from 200 females was obtained during the year 2013-14 to