Socio-economic Aspects of Backyard Poultry Production in Mahoba and Hamirpur Districts of Uttar Pradesh

A study was carried out in Mahoba and Hamirpur districts of Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh to generate information on socio-economic characteristics of poultry farmers, ground reality of poultry management practices of backyard poultry production and to formulate extension strategy to make the poultry farming more profitable. The results of the study showed that the respondents were predominantly young, had low level of education, belonged to Muslim religion and were from the schedule caste category, with medium sized nuclear family. The production level of poultry was very low due to unsystematic care with regard to the diseases and vaccination of the birds and was also not carried out in any of the villages surveyed. The major constraints identified were feed cost and high rate of chicks. Dominant chicken production system was a free range system with night shelter and mainly depends on scavenging without feed supplementation. The mean chicken flock size was 19.20 chickens household−1. The price of chicken products varied and determined by a number of factors. In village poultry production system women and children were more involved than men. It revealed that the total cost broiler was 6975.00, total gross return was 17500.00, and net return was 10525.00−1, the net income broiler 35.50−1 and the cost-benefit ratio was 1.50 for broiler. The result showed the back yard poultry were more profitable in the study areas.