The Chicken Guide to Poverty Alleviation

Today the world is rapidly growing but deep insights tell us that the real riches are not growing at all.A common man who works the whole day and earns just a mere satiable income is standing at the same place where he was standing some few years ago.

The more deprived are the poor people, who although have a roof over their heads still don't have enough in their pockets to feed themselves. These people are spread all around the world from Americas to Oceania and in between whether its Africa or Asia. 

After simplifying the statistics, it has been analyzed that every 3^rd person in the world is suffering from malnutrition of any form and among such people half the population is living below the poverty line. As such, most of them engage in unlawful activities and the law catches up with them.Well, empty stomachs and empty pocket can make anyone prey to hands of unlawful activities, right?

But, poultry farming has the potential for people who are poor and living below the poverty line. It is a very luring and profitable business that one can undertake given that the startup costs associated with it are low. In addition, poetry come with the added benefits of nutritional security and economic security.

One can start backyard poultry farming by building a poultry house using locally available wooden planks.The shelter may be made up by hanging tarpaulins alongside trees or to one’s house. One can also use the straw and mud for building a small poultry house which require very minimal expenditure. This night shelter is provided to make them safe from predators and also from extremities of the weather. Water is made available in the night shelter.

Regarding the feeds and feeding, backyard poultry does not require any special type of feeding and can be managed by utilizing the kitchen wastes. The protein supplementation can be done by collecting locally available ants and by using the oil cakes which are quite cheap and easily available. The carbohydrates can be sufficed by feeding grains once or twice a day during brooding (early stage of bird when heat is given to bird for sustenance) and for the rest of the lifetime, birds in free range go picking grains from the fields.

The chicks for backyard poultry farming are specially developed by government agencies and are made available at subsidized rates to the farmers. These chicks are very hardy and can survive in adverse climatic conditions. They are developed to suit the climatic conditions and adapted to take less feed and grow at an optimum rate. The birds are generally bought at one month of age and reared by all the members of the family. They are free to roam in the house and  at night they are enclosed in the shelter for their safety.

These birds are reared for meat and eggs. Usually they lay one egg per day after 24 weeks of age and after 72-76 weeks that they can be consumed as meat. The consumption of meat and eggs provides the nutritional security to the members of the family and excess production of eggs and meat can be marketed which will provide economic stability to the household. Further to this, all the members of the family whether women of the household, young children and elders of the house can be involved in this farming. The children rear them as a hobby and time spent with the chicken seems to be the quality time by the elders. While the male figures in the family can go out for his routine job, the females of the family can rear chicken for extra income.

Given the minimal costs for the facilities required for backyard farming, the poor people can in a way commence the business. Furthermore, the availability of chicks at subsidized rates cut down the farming expenditure. Excess production can be marketed and hence relieving them from the shackles of poverty. This kind of farming may seem small but it has more positive and constructive effects in the alleviation of poverty. It can offer an avenue for the unemployed to make money commencing as small scale farmers and then moving on to large scale farming of chicken after gaining suitable experience. The author will be happy to help to all those who want to start poultry business.