Here is an essay on ‘Poultry Farming’ for class 9, 10, 11 and 12. Find paragraphs, long and short essays on ‘Poultry Farming’ especially written for school and college students.
Essay on Poultry Farming
Essay Contents:
- Essay on the Introduction to Poultry Farming
- Essay on the Advantages of Adopting Poultry Farming
- Essay on Rural Poultry Production Scenario
- Essay on the Strategies for Promoting Successful Poultry Farming in Rural Areas
- Essay on Disease Prevention and Control Programmes for Poultry Farming
- Essay on the Advantages of Promoting Poultry Farming in Rural Areas
- Essay on the Conclusion to Poultry Farming
Essay # 1. Introduction to Poultry Farming:
The Indian poultry sector, in the recent past, has become a major contributor to the national economy largely due to the revolutionary and scientific approaches in avian health care management and superior breeding policies, giving rise to promising and highly profitable poultry enterprise. Today, India ranks globally at 4th and 5th in egg and meat production, respectively.
Being one of the most vibrant, dynamic and ever expanding sectors with tremendous potential, there is wide scope for its exploitation in the country. Even though there is significant upsurge in the commercialized poultry sector, the involvement of small-scale farmers residing in the rural areas has not improved as desired.
About 70% of the total population resides in rural areas which are vast and at present, the poultry production is more concentrated around urban and peri-urban areas. For full utilization of the potential that the poultry sector bears, there should be strong, concordant and sincere efforts from the part of administration, veterinarians and scientific community so as to enable the rural people, especially the youth and women, to indulge in economic poultry rearing.
A drive towards creating an awareness of the benefits of poultry rearing can help in alleviating the unemployment problems due to population explosion, malnutrition and financial insecurity which are all common to a rural society. Also the energy of unemployed youth in the rural villages could be directed in the right perspectives by adapting poultry farming as a useful source of income.
Women can also play a major role in improving basic health care of backyard poultry that does not require much manpower. Poultry farming can be a very important occupation for majority of the landless families and suitable measures adapted to upgrade the backyard poultry and promote small to medium scale poultry farming would provide a good source of self-employment and livelihood security and in the long run have the potential to drastically transform the economy of the rural India.
Even though poultry rearing brings in good returns, lack of proper and scientific poultry management can cause significant losses, the major culprits being infectious diseases that prompt the farmers, who are not well supported by the knowledge regarding immunoprophylaxis, disease monitoring, biosecurity and hygienic practices, to restrain from poultry farming.
The advancement in the field of science and technology has made it possible to identify and control the disease causing agents at the earliest and thereby preventing serious losses. Before jumping into the poultry farming business, care should be taken to educate the rural people about the prerequisites of poultry farming and disease prevention strategies to achieve better productivity and economic returns.
In this context, the utilization of advanced techniques and facilities should be made available to the rural poultry farmers by the government through agencies involved in disease diagnosis and management, which will instill in them the much needed confidence to undertake poultry farming as an economically viable livelihood.
Essay # 2. Advantages of Adopting Poultry Farming:
Among the several developmental schemes adopted in the livestock sector, poultry rearing has shown to have the highest growth rate with backyard poultry farming getting slowly transformed into commercial poultry units. The importance of the choice of poultry farming as successful and economically viable solution for alleviating poverty and unemployment in rural areas arises from the fact that it can bring in good profit through poultry products which are in great demand in the country such as India where the per capita consumption of meat and egg is far below the required standards.
The per capita consumption of eggs in the country is only 36 eggs and poultry meat is 850 grams against a recommended consumption of 180 eggs and 10.8 kg poultry meat per person per annum by the Nutritional Advisory Committee (NAC) (Table 8.1).
So there is wide scope to meet out this nutritional requirement through upgrading poultry farming. The urban people consume about two-thirds (65-70%) of the total eggs and poultry meat, though the urban areas have only 30% human population. While, the rural people consume only 7 eggs/head/year, and there is also insignificant consumption of poultry meat by the villagers, though the rural areas have 70% human population in the country.
Total meat production in India is 6.5 million tons, and poultry has 3rd rank in total meat production with nearly 25% contribution. Broiler meat contributes nearly 70% of total poultry meat production, the rest 30% is derived from culled layers/breeding stock, cockerels and desi fowl, so presently the desi fowl is contributing very less towards the meat production.
Also, the rural poultry production contributes only 20% of total egg production, which should be increased as per the demand and the tremendous potential and the huge exploitable scope of the rural poultry farming. Chickens in traditional village poultry systems provide good and cheap source of animal protein in the form of meat and eggs. The value-added products based on poultry meat and eggs are gaining much popularity among the urban consumers, which is another potential source of additional profit for the rural poultry farmers.
Apart from this, by-products such as poultry manure can be used as an effective fertilizer in agro-farming, which adds to the profitability of poultry farming. The poultry sector requires minimal investment and starts giving results in a very short time period. Rural poultry production is recognized as a major generator of livelihood security in rural regions of most of the developing countries as they are considered as livestock that can be owned by very poor households with limited land resources.
Thus the potential for growth of the sector is huge particularly in rural India, where 70% of the people reside. Government reports clearly show that the poultry sector has the potential to grow at 20% per annum over the next 10 years. Poultry, in fact, has registered the maximum growth rate among all the sectors of agriculture, the annual contribution of the poultry sector to the Gross National Product being Rs.7,810 crores.
Essay # 3. The Rural Poultry Production Scenario:
Poultry is generally managed in a backyard system of rearing by the village people. Village chickens are often essential elements of poor households because of their low labour and investment requirements. Although the output of traditional village chickens is low due to chick mortality, reduced weight gain and less number of eggs per hen per year, it is obtained with minimal input in terms of housing, disease control, management and supplementary feeding.
The backyard poultry rearing in rural areas is particularly based on scavenging, feeding of grains (wheat and barley) or giving household refuses. This adds to the profitability as the majority of the cost involved in poultry rearing is due to the feed, which may account for 60% of the total cost incurred as in case of commercial poultry units. Any cost- effective strategy that increases the productivity of these birds can, therefore, assist in poverty alleviation and the improvement of food security (Table 8.2).
Supported by several developmental schemes of the government, the rural farmers are attempting to adopt the poultry farming as a business by starting rearing 500-2000 chicks or even on larger scale, but the lack of the proper knowledge on poultry nutrition, diseases and their management along with improper support of professionals especially the poultry health care specialists has many a times forced the farmer to leave this profitable business.
The potentials, major constraints and possible solutions for improved poultry health care, management and production have to be identified in advance. In conjunction to promoting the backyard poultry farming, appropriate strategies need to be implemented to encourage the rural people of the country to develop entrepreneurship via adopting poultry rearing in the form of small to medium or even large scale poultry farms or enterprises. Given the integrated nature of most farming systems, a holistic interdisciplinary approach should be followed to promote the rural poultry production in a profitable manner.
Essay # 4. Strategies for Promoting Successful Poultry Farming in Rural Areas:
Successful poultry farming requires a good knowledge of poultry husbandry practices, viz. good management principles and procedures, awareness of the nutritional requirements of the birds, biosecurity, immunoprophylaxis, disease monitoring and hygienic and disinfection principles. Poultry farmers should also be acquainted with the economic poultry feed resources, they should be oriented and encouraged through education and training programmes, interactive health camps, promotional subsidies and professional interactions.
There should be a drive to strengthen the veterinary services, diagnostic facilities, disease surveillance and monitoring programmes, research and diagnostic activities (scientific and technological advancements), feed availability and the marketing facilities. Poultry diseases, the major concern in the backyard system of rearing and adapting the rural poultry farming as an enterprises/business, can be avoided to some extent by knowing their causes, clinical signs and lesions, modes of transmission, detection, prevention and control measures.
At present the poultry farming in rural areas is confined to marginal farmers who are not well versed with the basic knowledge of poultry farming. Therefore, care should be taken that the rural people get familiarize with the prerequisites of poultry farming, before venturing into this profitable business, to achieve better productivity and economic returns.
For farmers, to gain confidence in poultry rearing and mass popularization of poultry business, it is therefore essential to provide them the sound knowledge of poultry husbandry and the needful poultry health care and management support through well planned training and extension programmes.
Essay # 5. Disease Prevention and Control Programmes for Poultry Farming:
Infectious diseases of poultry, responsible for causing huge losses, are considered to be the most important factor that impedes the development of rural poultry enterprises. Outbreaks of infectious diseases like Newcastle disease (ND), infectious bursal disease (IBD), litchi heart disease, egg drop syndrome (EDS), salmonellosis, colibacillosis, coccidiosis, etc., can lead to huge losses due to high mortality, reduced production performances and carcass condemnation.
The velogenic form of Newcastle disease (Ranikhet disease) virus (NDV) frequently destroys most of the rural poultry flocks. Litchi heart disease caused by inclusion body hepatitis (IBH) virus has already been identified a cause of ‘spiking mortality’ in broiler flocks. Other economically important diseases include fowl pox, infectious bronchitis (IB), Marek’s disease (MD), avian reovirus (ARV) manifestations, chicken infectious anaemia (CIA), egg drop syndrome-76, colisepticaemia, fowl cholera, infectious coryza, chronic respiratory disease (CRD) (mycoplasmosis) and aspergillosis.
Mycotoxicosis caused by mycotoxins like aflatoxins present in mouldy feed also has serious detrimental effects on health and productivity of birds. IBD, CIA, ARV, MD, litchi heart disease and aflatoxicosis are the important immunosuppressive diseases, which predisposes poultry flocks to secondary infections leading to huge economic losses.
Parasitic and nutritional deficiency diseases also plays role in decreased production output under the rural environment due to the lack of proper sanitation and hygiene practices and the balanced nutrition. Indigenous poultry flocks reared in free-range system are always susceptible to these diseases.
These economically important diseases as well as diseases of zoonotic implications such as bird flu are spelling doom over the poultry keepers and discouraging them to undertake poultry farming as a successful enterprise. The economic loss as a result of poultry diseases is more important from the perspective of a landless rural poultry farmer and mortality of birds, especially in poor rural families, and can even lead to economic catastrophe that may exaggerate the socio-economic impact of poultry diseases.
For the effective control of the common viral diseases of poultry, it is essential to follow strict immunoprophylactic measures to prevent the occurrence of these diseases. Diseases such as ND, MD, IBD, EDS, fowl pox, etc., can be effectively controlled by vaccines procured from public or private sector biological.
These diseases, which are the major constraint as far as the rural poultry producers are concerned, should be given priority at all stages. Strategic measures should be implemented for developing sustainable community-based ND control programmes with due importance. There is a need for more coordinated research on the most appropriate and cost-effective vaccine for controlling ND in rural poultry.
The recent development and use of thermostable vaccine (ND-V4) in many developing countries has created fresh interest for the control of ND. The V4 vaccine is more cost-effective where oral administration can be used and this vaccine could be a future breakthrough for ND vaccination in village chickens.
The thermostable vaccine can be used along with pelleted feed or coated on suitable food grains which can help to control diseases in birds. In the current scenario of various IBD virus strains circulating in the field and different vaccination practices being followed, particularly after the emergence of very virulent (vv)-IBDV in the country, a judicious vaccination programme for the prevention and control of this highly immunosuppressive disease is to be planned out.
The indiscriminate use of hot vaccines {intermediate plus strains for vv-IBD virus) should be discouraged and they should be practiced only in those regions where vv-IBDV is a major problem. Regular monitoring of vaccinal responses including maternal antibody evaluation for IBDV is suggested, which is the need of the hour for designing judicious immunoprophylaxis strategies for IBD.
Incidences of vertically transmitted diseases such as EDS-76, CIA, salmonellosis, mycoplasmosis, etc. can be minimized by procuring healthy chicks from certified hatcheries. When compared to the viral diseases, bacterial diseases including colibacillosis, salmonellosis, fowl cholera, fowl coryza, CRD, etc. can be prevented by good management practices as well as timely treatment with specific antibiotics.
Many anti-coccidial agents are available that can be added in feed so as to prevent the incidence of coccidiosis, a protozoal disease which is responsible for high flock mortality resulting in severe economic loss. Antifungal agents are also available for treating and controlling the fungal diseases in poultry.
Feed additives such as probiotics help in reducing the losses due to few of the infectious diseases. Nutritional deficiency diseases can be minimized to a great extent by providing balanced formulations supported with necessary mineral and vitamin supplements to the birds. Parasitic diseases can be avoided by following a regular prescribed de-worming schedule during poultry rearing.
The development of effective poultry health care and disease management programme requires reliable information on the epidemiology of diseases, which is lacking in village chicken production systems. Epidemiological studies in rural areas should be undertaken to understand the host-pathogen-environment interactions.
Results from such studies could be used in developing suitable vaccination programmes, as well as selecting the most cost-effective vaccines. Disease surveillance is further limited by poor infrastructure, communication and networking, as well as inadequate diagnostic facilities.
These limitations have resulted in under-reporting of disease outbreaks, as observed for ND and other diseases in many places of the country. At the village level, contacts between flocks of different households are the main sources of infection transmission. Similarly, other domestic fowls and wild birds form another source of infection, because the chickens roam freely in the villages.
Apart from this, the people who are following poultry farming in the rural areas are not usually practicing the basic principles of biosecurity, sanitation, hygiene and disease management, which make their flock easily susceptible to various diseases, leading to the economic assault and finally they get discouraged and leave the poultry business.
Describing the epidemiology and economics of village poultry production, suggests the need to develop appropriate epidemiological techniques for rural poultry, because of the nature of the host-pathogen-environment interaction specifically in these areas. During disease outbreaks, it is essential to carry out early diagnosis and follow appropriate therapeutic (medication and treatment) measures along with proper disposal of carcass, good sanitation, and hygiene and biosecurity practices. If necessary, suitable prophylactic measures should be followed immediately.
Essay # 6. Advantages of Promoting Poultry Farming in Rural Areas:
i. Provides subsidiary employment and helps alleviating unemployment and job scarcity.
ii. As a source of regular income provides financial security and dwindles down poverty.
iii. Inspires self-confidence and self-sufficiency in rural people.
iv. Reduces malnutrition and ensures nutritional security.
v. Management does not require much manpower—ladies and children can be involved easily.
vi. Poultry farming needs minimal use of land and capital.
vii. By-products such as poultry manure have excellent value in organic agro- farming, which would fetch higher return to villagers.
viii. Job opportunities can be created through consultancy services.
ix. Overall improvement in rural economy.
x. Sustained growth of poultry sector could be achieved.
xi. Increased poultry production will strengthen the national economy.
Essay # 7. Conclusion to Poultry Farming:
Poultry farming has tremendous potential, which has not been exploited to its full capability in rural areas. Rural poultry is an important element in diversifying agricultural production and increasing household food security. Chickens provide readily harvestable animal protein to rural households. Poultry, like other short-cycle animal stock, is a crucial element in the struggle for sustained food production and poverty alleviation.
In India, even though, the commercial poultry production is increasing rapidly, no significant efforts have been made for developing backyard poultry and poultry farming practices for small farmers, which still contributes much towards the poultry production in the country. If effective measures are implemented to improve the production performance with minimum monetary input this can form the basis for transforming the rural poultry sector from subsistence to a more economically productive base.
Pro-poor policy is needed to uplift the socio-economic conditions of the rural/tribal farmers of the country. For them, the rearing of poultry is a viable alternative for alleviating poverty by providing self-employment opportunities and economic security. The current scenario of ‘population explosion’ has limited the number of job opportunities in both government and private sectors.
By utilizing the prospects of successful poultry fanning this problem can be sidelined to a great extent and also the energy of unemployed youth and women in the rural villages could be directed into right channels. Thus, educating and supporting the rural farmers for development of poultry enterprises can to a great extent instill in them greater economic stability.
In order to encourage poultry production by rural people, emphasis is required to develop indigenous poultry flocks, which can thrive well under rural conditions having adverse environment, in small units as backyard, family and small to large scale poultry farming system. It is also essential to provide timely and appropriate low cost health cover to the rural poultry and to identify cheap and locally available feed resources for sustaining their production potential in a profitable manner.
Taking stock of the situation it is the responsibility of the administration to set up plans for the future that can help improve the awareness about poultry rearing and disease prevention and control measures. This can be achieved by promotional campaigns on scientific and economic rearing of poultry with the help of mass media and by providing subsidies for infrastructure facilities.
The farmers should be given enough know-how regarding the disease management aspects by rendering training programmes with the help of information centres and professional organizations so that the losses incurred due to unscientific rearing practices can be minimized.
Therefore, the poultry health scientists, extension personnel, planners, policy makers and officials should interact regularly to have information on the production potential, health management requirements and other problems and feedbacks of rural poultry rearers, and execute the modification of the practice, if necessary, which may help in success and sustainability of rural poultry production.
A strong resolve towards educating the rural farmers and to transform the energy of rural youth and jobless women to help them gain financial security is the need of the hour and all efforts from the governmental organization should be properly channelized to obtain the desired results.
This in turn can ingrain in them the confidence to surge ahead in the coming decade, which can drastically transform the economy of the rural India. For this, the traditional rural poultry farming practices should be supported with the backbone of a precise knowledge on poultry health care and management along with appropriate follow-up of extension policies and activities.
The rural poultry farming, in country like India where 70% of the population is rural, if promoted in the positive directions through an integrated approach can have significant impact in generating small, medium to large enterprises in rural areas; help in achieving livelihood security, alleviating malnutrition, poverty and unemployment; and shall improve in the long run the socio-economic status of the rural families as well as the Indian economy and thus the sustained growth of poultry sector could also be achieved.
Therefore, efforts need to be made for public awareness about the “virtues of poultry business” and its “products” by blending science, spirituality, wisdom and mass popularity so that the poultry farming should gain popularity not only in traditional rural families but also in highly educated and scientific society.