Women in poultry

According to a popular Yiddish proverb, ‘A poor man eats chicken on two occasions. One occasion is when he is himself ill and the second when the chicken is ill. Otherwise, he cannot afford to have this luxury’. But the fact is that chicken and its products such as eggs are the major source of protein for many households who cannot afford to buy mutton and even beef which is a bit cheaper than mutton.

Apart from meeting dietary needs of families, poultry is a good source of income for families especially in the rural areas. We are well aware of the fact that women residing in rural areas serve as the backbone of the society and are responsible for the agriculture and economy of our country. According to estimates, over 70 per cent of the rural women work in agriculture - pre-harvest, post-harvest - and livestock management activities. The importance of poultry is immense in rural settings where women of the family rear chicken to meet the family’s dietary needs and earn livelihood as well. You visit a typical rural household and you will see roosters and hens strolling here and there with so many young ones around. Usually, the activity of rearing chicken is low cost as it is done in houses. The chickens are taken well care of and are fed grains and leftover food. The interesting part is that the chickens are treated just like family members and are even called by names. But this does not mean there are no challenges involved. These birds are vulnerable to attacks by scavengers like cats and certain diseases that specifically attack the poultry birds. If the women taking care of them are unaware of the various diseases and ways to protect the flock, they can lose the birds in a matter of days.

Rearing chickens is a highly feasible option for many rural households in Pakistan and the good news is that there are certain trainings that one has to undergo to avoid issues relating to poultry. The fact is that training women in rural and sub-urban areas in the poultry sector can go a long way in helping them overcome their poverty and increase the family income. Besides, it is believed that bringing in more and more families, especially women, into the poultry sector will help increase food security and end malnutrition.

In a bid to help the local households improve both nutrition and income, USAID has funded a programme that trains women in raising poultry and sells their poultry at subsidised rates. Under this project, 80 women in Mastung, a district of Balochistan, received 20 chickens and roosters each, vaccinations and 50 kilograms of feed for about Rs 1,000, which is 25 per cent of the actual cost. According to the USAID document, “This breed of poultry survives on kitchen scraps and withstands arid environments. Now, women cook eggs to supplement their family’s diet and sell the rest at market rates.”

A trainee of the USAID programme, Najma Bibi is resident of a village Khaira Gali in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK). She has dozens of chickens of desi breed that are fed organic food. She takes extra care of these chickens because they fetch her premium price. Tourists visiting Pakistan’s picturesque northern areas try to get as close to the nature as much as they can and opt for desi chicken while trying out the traditional cuisine. While walking through these areas, one comes across a lot of banners saying pure home grown desi chickens are available.

According to Najma, the tourists do not care much about the price as they come with the intention of spending money and having fun. “Mostly, my customers are the roadside restaurant owners but occasionally the tourists staying in hotels and rest houses directly approach me and other women in the village for poultry supply,” she says.

“After the training my income has surely increased. More of my regular income comes from the eggs as I have hens with high egg bearing ratio. Today, hens can easily lay four to five times the number of eggs they would lay a couple of years ago,” she informs.

It is heartening to see that government institutes like the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad and the National Agricultural Research Council (NARC) have also introduced breeds through selection and gene improvement that have more weight and lay more eggs. These are being given to women who want raise chickens for livelihood.

No doubt commercial poultry sector has expanded rapidly during the last three decades and highly productive birds have been imported for boosting production, yet rural poultry is still a significant source of egg production in the country.

Dr Abdul Karim Bhatti, an office-bearer of Pakistan poultry association insists that the population and productivity of desi breed can be increased and enhanced but the problem is that not much research has gone into this sector. His point is that if the best chickens from different flocks are selected for breeding, the results would be great.

Fortunately for women farmers, there are enough funding and training opportunities. Many have been trained in the backyard and commercial chicken production by the project staff and were also given exotic breeds of chickens like Saso and Rhode Island Red (RID) for boosting egg production.

Similarly, Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Funds’ (PPAF’s) asset transfer schemes are for the ultra poor. They are given things like hens, livestock, etc., worth Rs 30,000 at the most to help them earn their livelihood. To make the best use of the money and minimize risks, PPAF forms Common Interest Groups (CIGs) comprising 30 to 40 people. They thoroughly discuss proposals before starting work on them. Linkages of these people are also developed so that they can sell eggs etc to bakeries in their vicinity.

Tanvir Arif, CEO, Society for Conservation and Protection of Environment (SCOPE), says, “Intensive farming has become quite popular nowadays. This is also called ecological farming.

Under this system, he says, whole families are involved and they grow trees and multiple crops on the same piece of land. This way the water use becomes highly efficient.”

In rural areas, families keep livestock at the same place and grow fodder right there. To further make best use of the place, a reasonable number of chickens are reared and just like in the case of livestock the responsibility of taking care of them lies with the womenfolk.

The demand at the moment is that the government departments as well as the NGOs and donors must promote backyard poultry as a means to improve economic conditions of people and help them enhance the nutritional value of the food they consume. The labour force in the form of hardworking women in households is readily available.

They must also be trained as rearing of poultry through traditional methods is not so effective and the birds can be vulnerable to various diseases. Other problems include low egg production, lack of veterinary extension services and absence facility for medication or vaccination. Addressing these issues will boost the confidence of household women and they will go for home-based poultry in large numbers.

The best thing about the poultry project is that it can be started anywhere in the country and even in the remotest and backward areas of the country.