Different constraints in adopting ethno veterinary practices in native chicken rearing

Introduction

Rural poultry farming involves rearing of desi birds under free range, semi intensive or intensive conditions (Buragohain et al., 2007) [3] . In rural villages of India, chicken reared in backyard are mostly desi type with low egg and meat production (Ghosh et al., 2005) [4] . The health care management of desi chickens is most important which are prone to Newcastle (Ranikhet) disease. Lack of proper health management and lack of timely approach in getting veterinary aid incurs a heavy economic loss to the farmers owing to the disease outbreak. Thus to overcome this challenge, ethno-veterinary practices can be used as an alternative and sustainable solution in desi bird rearing. Indigenous technical knowledge is the treasure of knowledge found in rural India which the people in a given community have developed over time (Rakesh et al., 2015) [5] . This study was conducted to identify the constraints faced by the farmers and to suggest suitable recommendations to make this enterprise more profitable and sustainable.

Materials and Methods

The study was conducted in 100 desi bird farmers who attended training programme on importance of ethno veterinary practice in desi bird rearing. Data was collected by a well-structured questionnaire from individual farmers. Garrett's ranking technique was used to give ranking for the constraints. Garrett's formula for converting ranks into percent is as follows: R ij = Rank given for i th factor by the j th individual; N= Number of factors ranked by the j th individual The percent position of each rank was converted into scores referring to the table of Garret. For each factors, the scores of individual respondents were added together and divided by the total number of the respondents for whom scores were added. These mean scores for all the factors were arranged in the descending and the most influencing constraint faced by the farmers were identified through the ranks assigned.

Results and Discussion

The study (Table I) revealed the socio economic profile of the farmers. The majority of the respondents were of the middle aged small farmers who wish to start this enterprise as a new one to concentrate on herbal enriched poultry production. Other farmers who intend to enrich their knowledge in ethno veterinary practices produce chicks with the parent stock at their own risk. The system of rearing as followed by most of www.extensionjournal.com The farmers was of the intensive type and it is maintained mainly for meat purpose sold at the age of 1.5-2.5kg body weight in market. Majority of the farmers also reported of following vaccination for Ranikhet disease and their dependence on allopathic medicine for health management. They wish to adopt ethno veterinary practices in desi bird www.extensionjournal.com rearing, the awareness for which they are getting through trainings adopted by Institutes. The advantage of using Garrett's technique over simple frequency distribution is that the constraints are arranged based on the point of view from the respondents (Table II). The first constraint faced by all farmers irrespective of their socio economic profile was lack of awareness about the application of ethno veterinary practices in poultry health. Followed by it, the unavailability of readymade herbal preparation and poor source of herbs was reported. Freshly prepared herbal preparation has good effect than the ready made preparations because certain phytochemical constituents become volatile when prepared and stored for a long time. Due to increasing deforestation, many plant species of medicinal value is in the verge of extinction. The next constraint faced was the time involvement, followed by labour involvement, duration and easily available allopathic drugs. As compared to the past, the farmers are now economically stable and they are dependent on these easily available allopathic drugs to overcome their time and labour as the herbs are made in the form of paste or extract and a course of 5-7 fresh preparation has to be made by collecting the different herbs indicated for the treatment. Many new variants of bacteria are emerging leading to new outbreak of diseases which were found to be beyond control with the herbal drugs. Thus it becomes less reliable. Lack of documentation of this traditional system of medicine is yet another constraint which the younger generation farmers were reporting. There was also no legal recognition to this practice reported. This was due to the lack of transfer of knowledge form the local healers to their community owing to superstitious belief. On the other hand, it seems that the young generation seems indifferent towards this knowledge. Majority of the elders were of the opinion that their children or their community influenced by modern technologies were not interested to know this wisdom which was the main root cause for the erosion of this precious traditional knowledge form us. Thus our findings by and large reflects the work carried out by Adedeji et al., (

, Rakesh et al., (loc. cit), and derives support from their results. Hence to encourage farmers to depend on veterinary practices, they need to be trained about its prophylactic importance in poultry health. In addition, measures have to be taken to document the practices, validate it and to improve, cultivate and preserve the nearly extinct variety of herbs. Primary school education has to focus on the application of ethno veterinary medicine and the need to preserve the treasure of medicinal herbs lying in this peninsular country. Also the traditional practices has to be integrated with the modern practices and improved upon to apply it successfully at the field level. (Ahmed S. El wakeel and Abuelgasin, 1996) [2] .

Summary

It was concluded from this study that the farmers face several constraints in adopting traditional ethno veterinary practices in desi bird rearing and gives more importance to get knowledge about the practices to adopt it as a prophylactic and therapeutic remedy to improve the health condition of the birds.

Acknowledgement

AcknowledgementThe authors are grateful to all the farmers interviewed in this study for their patience, co-operation and provision of valuable information.

References

1. Adedeji OS, Ogunsina TK, Akinwumi AO, Ameen SA, Ojebiyi OO, Akinlade JA. Ethno veterinary medicine in African organic poultry production. Int Food Res J. 2013;20(2):527-532.
2. El Wakeel AS, Gumma AY. Some traditional husbandry and ethno veterinary practices of the Messerya Humr Baggara transhumants of southern Kordofan. Nomadic Peoples. 1996;39:147-154.
3. Buragohain R, Ghosh MK, Ahmed FA, Pathak PK, Bhattacharya M. Growth performance of Vanaraja birds in high altitude areas of Arunachal Pradesh. Indian Vet J. 2007;84:302-303.
4. Ghosh MK, Ahmed FA, Buragohain R, Pathak PK, Bhattacharya M. Growth performance of Vanaraja birds in high altitude areas of Arunachal Pradesh under backyard system of management. XXII Annual Conference and National Symposium, Indian Poultry Science Association, Project Directorate on Poultry, Hyderabad. 2005 Feb 2-4;198.
5. Rakesh ES, Anil Kumar CV, Meenakshi HK. Constraint analysis of indigenous cropping and ethno veterinary practices in Arunachal Pradesh. Trends Biosci. 2015;8(14):3730-3734.