Thematic Focus

Small-holder or back-yard poultry rearing is a key livelihood activity for a large number of rural households in South Asia. In addition to small (but sustained) income, small poultry flocks reared by rural households contribute significantly to household food and nutrition security.  

 

In Bangladesh, 80 to 90 per cent of rural households are estimated to keep flocks of 3 to 10 birds. In Bhutan, a majority of rural households keep some poultry birds; and village chicken constitute approximately 86 per cent of the national poultry stock; there are only a few commercial layer farms around major urban centres. In India, agricultural households keep about 85 per cent of the poultry stock...Read More

 

 

Smallholder Livestock Rearing and Common Lands

A large majority of the farming community in India comprises small and marginal farmers, who own close to 70% of the livestock. With limited land holdings, these farmers have traditionally relied on common lands and other common resources for meeting a significant portion of the fodder (and water) requirements for their livestock.

 

Common property resources are defined as resources accessible to the whole community of a village and to which no individual has exclusive property rights. In the dry regions of India, these include village pastures, community forests, wastelands, common threshing grounds, waste dumping places, watershed drainages, village ponds, tanks, rivers/ rivulets and river beds...Read More