Backyard Chicken Farming Role in Supplementing Household Economy of District Quetta, Pakistan

Backyard chicken farming is as an effective tool for poverty reduction in rural areas, by providing living to resource poor communities; it is an important source of extra cash income other than eggs and meat for family consumption. The present study was carried out to assess the role of backyard poultry farming in supplementing household economy of rural farmers dwelling in district Quetta, Pakistan. Information from ninety-nine randomly selected female backyard poultry farmers were gathered during November 2016 to March 2017. Owing to previous government and non-government interventions backyard poultry keeping was found as an established practice. Women were found the main custodian of backyard poultry birds and consequently were the main beneficiary of the activity. Poultry birds of Fayoumi and Golden / Rhode Island Red (RIR) breeds were the main types. Majority of the farmers reared these birds under scavenging conditions in combination with feeding on household left over dry bread (52%); most of the respondents (62%) were taking care of the birds by themselves which resulted in overall low production cost. Income included the earning received from sale of birds, eggs and the home consumption of poultry meat and eggs. Net income per annum per household was estimated as Pakistani Rupee (PKR) 79290/- (US$ 566). The estimated Rank Based Quotients (R.B.Q) based on farmers perception disclosed backyard poultry keeping as an important domestic source of meat and eggs with almost no or very little capital investment, ranked (I, 80%) followed by a substantial source of supplementary income and was ranked (II, 79%). Amongst the problems, disease outbreaks were the most prevailing problem (I, 90%) followed by unavailability of vaccines (II, 85%). The backyard poultry farming generated subsistence income and provided high quality valuable food that improved household nutrition.