Economic impact of rearing Rajashri birds for improving the livelihood of farmers

Abstract

Raising of local poultry breeds in backyard farming is an important source of livelihood for the rural people. “Rajasri” a dual-purpose bird, developed for backyard farming has a great potential due to its versatile capacity to adapt in various climatic conditions. These birds are exclusively raised in the backyards with a capacity of 160-170 eggs/year/bird. Dr. YSRHU-KVK, Nellore-2 (Periyavaram) popularized rearing of dual-purpose Rajasri birds which are highly acclimatized to the jurisdiction of KVK as backyard poultry by providing training on backyard poultry rearing and supplied 5weeks old chicks to farmers for enhancement of their income and livelihood in rural areas. The present study was conducted to know the impact of rearing Rajashri birds which were supplied to farmers during the years 2022-23 and 2023-24. Economic analysis indicated that net returns per bird was 422.85 and 448.18 for the birds supplied during 2022-23 and 2023-24 respectively. The weekly egg production was resulted as 3.79 and 3.85, sale price of eggs was Rs. 5.72 and Rs. 5.94 respectively during 2022-23 and 2023-24. Similarly, sale price of female birds was resulted as Rs. 174.60 and Rs. 182.40 and the average expenditure per bird resulted as Rs. 84.12 and Rs. 83.56 respectively for birds supplied during 2022-23 and 2023-24 respectively.