Present Status of Backyard Rearing System of Poultry in a Selected Rural Area of Brahmmanbaria District Bangladesh

Abstract

This study was conducted in Vhelanagor, Bahadorpur and Paratoli villages under Bancharampur Upazilla of Brahmmanbaria district to assess the present status of backyard poultry production system. Data were collected from 75 randomly selected farmers having 25 from each village through face-to-face interview. All the respondents reared deshi chicken and about 63% of them reared deshi duck only. It was also found that highest proportion (63.49%) of farmers reared both chicken and duck together, followed by 22.23% reared only chicken and 14.28% reared duck. The average population per household of chicken and duck were 11.21 and 10.54 respectively. All farmers reared poultry in semi-scavenging system. About 56.52% farmers kept poultry in their dwelling house. Farmers were used boiled rice, rice polish, paddy and broken rice to feed the birds. About 57% farmers were used rice and rice polish to make diet for chicken and ducks. Farmers provided around 53g and 109g supplemental diet to each chicken and duck per day, respectively and about 65% farmers provided this diet twice a day. Majority of farmers did not use feeder and waterer (about 75% and 82% respectively). Age at sexual maturity of Chicken and duck were around 189 days and 195 days, respectively. Adult weight of chicken and duck were 1141.5g and 1625g, respectively. The weights of chicken and duck eggs were 38.77g and 61.20g, respectively. The hatchability of chicken and duck eggs ranged between 69-80% and 76-90% with an average of 76.35% and 82.44%, respectively. Majority of the farmers mentioned that the most prevalent diseases of chicken and duck were New castle and cholera (about 50% and 47%, respectively). A large number of farmers (82.67%) did not vaccinate their poultry. Farmers collected chicks and ducklings from market and neighbor but most of the farmers (48% for chicks and 53% for ducks) incubate eggs under the broody hen. Backyard poultry farmers are low producers and chicken and duck were found to be the most common poultry species reared by the farmers. Key words: Backyard poultry, Semi-scavenging system, Mortality