BREEDING STRATEGIES FOR RURAL OR BACKYARD OR NATIVE  POULTRY PRODUCTION IN INDIA

 

BREEDING STRATEGIES FOR RURAL OR BACKYARD OR NATIVE  POULTRY PRODUCTION IN INDIA

Rural population living in India constitutes 72.2 per cent of the total population, which is predominantly occupied by poor, marginal farmers and landless labourers. Backyard poultry farming is an old age profession of rural families in India. It is the most important source for subsidiary income for landless and poor farmers. It is an enterprise with low initial investment but higher economic returns and can easily be managed by women, children and old aged persons of the households. Now-a-days, poultry meat and eggs have been the best and cheapest source for meeting out the per capita requirement of protein and energy for rural areas of India. Though India has shown a tremendous growth in poultry production over decades but rural poultry farming is still lagging behind and always found to be neglected. As it is the best alternative for the small scale farmers to subsidise the income with low input, so this system needs an upliftment with the recent advancement of research in the field of rearing of chicks, balanced feeding, disease control and efficient marketing system for the eggs and meat. Now-a-days, the backyard poultry farming can be easily started with good egg laying breeds of RIR (Rhode Island Red), Chabro, Punjab Red and Partapdhan. Backyard poultry production system is a low input business and is characterized by indigenous night shelter system, scavenging system, natural hatching of chicks, poor productivity of birds, with little supplementary feeding, local marketing and no health care practice. Poultry development plays a crucial role in increasing the eggs and chicken meat production. The production of agricultural crops has been rising @ 1.5–2% per annum, where as eggs and broilers has been shown to rise @ 8-10% per annum but the growth has been mainly restricted to commercial poultry. In India, growth in the livestock sector can definitely contribute to poverty reduction, because people living in rural areas mostly depends on livestock for their daily livelihoods. It has also been reported that the demand for the animal protein source is increasing rapidly in developing countries. Raising of local poultry birds in backyard is an important source of livelihood for the rural people. Small holdings containing 2-3 hens per unit were found to be more efficient producer of eggs compared to those with 5 or more hens per unit. Main interest of the poultry farmers having backyard poultry is not production of eggs as returns are very low from sale of eggs. They hatch all their eggs and sale them as birds because of broodiness habit of these breeds.

Poultry has been one of the finest components of animal husbandry sector substantially contributing to the national GDP and has been backbone of the rural and tribal economy in the country. Backyard poultry farming contributes 12 % of total egg production of the country. Further, the meat and egg of backyard poultry are more highly valued than that of industrially produced birds due to its comparatively superior taste and texture. By rearing of improved breeds of chicken, we can increase the production potential of our birds under backyard, both in terms of eggs/bird/annum and body weight gain per day. It is a need for systematic study to characterize all the native breeds to find out the uniqueness among them so that those traits can be exploited to design breeding and conservation strategies.

Chicken was the first poultry species to domesticated, which happened in 5400 BC in China. In India, archaeological discoveries points out that chicken had been domesticated by 5400 BC. But it is not known whether these birds made much contribution to modem domestic fowl. Chickens from the Harappan Culture of the Indus Valley (2500-2100 B.C.) may have been the main source for diffusion through the world (Crawford, 1990a and b) [1, 2] . Birds were first domesticated for cultural and entertainment purposes, until much later birds were utilized as a source for human food (Crawford, 1990b) [2] . From there they gradually spread to the east and to the west from there they eventually encircled the globe. Two scientific names are in use for chicken, namely Gallus gallus and Gallus domesticus. The first implies that chickens were domesticated exclusively from the Red jungle fowl (Gallus gallus) and the second that more than one of the wild jungle fowl species namely grey jungle fowl (Gallus sonnerati), Ceylon jungle fowl (Gallus lafayettei) and green jungle fowl (Gallus varius) contributed to the evolution of domestic fowl. However, the red jungle fowl is the species that most closely resembles chicken so that there is no doubt that it was the main ancestor, although it may not have been the only one Collias and Collias (1996) [3] . It is a need for systematic study to characterize all the native breeds to find out the uniqueness among them so that those traits can be exploited to design breeding and conservation strategies. All native chicken are low productive in nature, hence the improvement of native chicken through selective breeding is required for enhancing the productivity of backyard and free range system of production. All native chicken breeds need to be identified, demarcated and notified so that improved varieties can be propagated in non notified areas for improving the productivity of backyard farming. Genetic improvement of native chicken breeds and reintroduction could be used to increase the productivity of backyard/free range farming without increasing the production cost or loss of biodiversity (Magothe et al. 2012) [4] . Therefore, characterization and improvement in performance of native chicken through selective breeding for growth or production is the need of the hour to enhance the productivity of low input backyard poultry farming in a sustainable manner.

 

ADVANTAGES OF REARING NATIVE CHICKEN

 

Advantages of backyard poultry farming

There are many advantages of rural poultry farming system which are given as follows:

Ø Gives employment to the rural small scale and marginal farmers.

Ø Provides additional income to the rural communities.

Ø Aids in enhancing the soil fertility in backyards (15 chickens produce 1-1.2 kg of manure/day).

Ø Products from rural poultry farming fetches high price as compared to those from intensive poultry farming. Almost double the rates of brown shelled eggs in the local market.

Ø Provides eggs and meat with low investment through backyard poultry farming in free range system.

Ø Birds reared under free range conditions give eggs and meat of low cholesterol concentration compared to those produced under intensive poultry farming.

Ø Lessens protein malnutrition in susceptible groups like pregnant women, feeding mothers and children.

Native chicken makes up rural poultry, which has numerous benefits and draws the farming community, businesspeople, self-help organisations, etc. Even illiterates can start native chicken farming because it involves very little capital and considerably less skill. Rural poultry, which includes native chicken, has several benefits viz.

z Provides subsidiary income to the rural families

z Can be easily adapted even by resource poor facilities with very low investment.

z Even illiterates can adopt it as it requires much less skill.

z Native chicken are more sturdy and well adapted to local climatic conditions.

z Can be sustained entirely of free range

z Both eggs and meat of native chicken fetch 100 to 150% more price than commercial

z They help to improve the nutritional status of rural poor.

z Eggs and meat contain low levels of cholesterol and saturated fats.

 

BREEDING STRATEGIES

The utilization of improved native breeds or its crosses with high producing coloured breeds has been found to result in a suitable bird for the traditional backyard system. Pure breeding methods like mass selection, family selection, within family selection, index selection and their variants are adopted after assessing and apportioning the variance. Cross breeding is adopted at different levels where dominance contributes to the variance mostly. Newer options for quicker, more precise, and using specific poultry breeding programmes are presented by newer understanding on molecular genetics and the unravelling of the chicken genome. Integration of new knowledge, such as MAS and QTL, into current breeding programmes is crucial. Breeding of native chicken need to be viewed as operating by three different methods

1. Crossbreeding Programme

Several government institutes viz., CARI, Izatnagar, DPR, Hyderabad, SAUs in many states viz. Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu etc., propagate pure breeds (or) improved varieties resulting from various crossbreeding programmes viz., Two way cross, Three way cross, Exotic breeds hybrids, Synthetic hybrid. The response from rural poor is growing even though the market acceptability for crossbred multi-colored strain has been comparatively lower than for purebred native chicken.

1. Cockerel Exchange

This can be achieved by exchange programme of cockerels. Cockerels of improved breeds were distributed to the rural farmer. The response from rural poor is growing even though the market acceptability for crossbred multicolored strain has been comparatively lower than for purebred native chicken

• Straight Breeding Programme The nucleus flock is maintained either in a central station or in a breeding farm. This flock could have been established during the on-station characterization of local breeds. This will also be done through distribution of non-pedigreed offspring of elite animals. These chicks, as well as those produced for testing candidate males, are sold at 2 to 4 weeks of age to ensure that they are vaccinated and have acquired the minimum body weight and vigour needed to survive in village conditions.

 

PARAMETERS FOR SELECTION

Selection strategy for native chicken should serve two purposes:

1. Improvement of economic parameters like body weight, egg number, fertility etc., so that the rural farmer gets maximum return out of his small sized backyard chicken units

2. Maintenance of characters specific to native chicken viz., appearance including plumage colour egg shell color and long shank.

 

DEVELOPMENT OF STOCKS FOR RURAL POULTRY

 

Since independent efforts in our country made to produce dual purpose breeds and hybrids with the improved production profiles. The exchanges of hatching eggs, introduction of exotic cockerels were adopted.

 

FUTURE STRATEGIES

z There is a need for creating awareness, providing knowledge and proper planning and implementation of strategies for backyard poultry farming for poverty alleviation in rural India.

z There should be a co-ordination research programme which address the problems of breeding, feeding, housing and disease control in backyard poultry farming.

z The importance of native breeds of poultry birds for rural economy in developing and underdeveloped countries mostly very high.

z One of the most important positive characters of native chicken is their hardiness, which is ability to tolerate the harsh environmental condition and poor husbandry practices.

z The low production performance of native breeds of chickens may be improved through selection and crossbreeding.

 

Importance of local breeds in backyard poultry farming system—————-

Small scale holder backyard poultry production utilizing local breeds is expected to come under serious competition with the commercial poultry sector and if not well planned the genetic resources of local poultry may be lost. Conservation of local poultry breeds along with improvement for traits like meat and eggs will increase competitiveness to survive in the market. The socio-religious use of local poultry breeds, superior adaptability in their habitat, ability to perform in low input production system and the production system which is similar to organic production will give competitive advantages of backyard system over commercial poultry production. Backyard poultry farming gives very high return as the investment is very low. The local breeds of poultry/indigenous poultry genetic resources are held in high esteem even after 50 years of industrial poultry production because of the following reasons:-

Ø Local poultry breeds exhibit superior adaptability in their habitat and possess the ability to survive, produce and reproduce on low level of nutrition and sub-optimal management.

Ø The inputs required are very small, as they scavenge their feed requirements and are raised with little veterinary care.

Ø They possess the ability to protect themselves from predators.

Ø All the local breeds show broodiness and hatch their own chicks.

Ø People prefer eggs and meat of indigenous as poultry compared to those realized from farm-breed chickens consequently eggs and meat from local breeds are sold at a premium price.

Ø Cock fighting is a popular sport for the ethnic tribes and the local breeds are superior to exotic breeds in fighting. Ø Use of coloured bird for socio-religious.

 

Points kept in mind for backyard poultry farming —————–

 

ü Trainings: Poultry farmers must approach to Krishi Vigyan Kendra’s to obtain the basic training on backyard poultry farming. This is very useful for rearing of chicks, feeding, housing and disease management.

ü Exhibitions: Through regular exhibition of local poultry breeds in Kisan Melas, Animal Camps, Livestock Championship and other poultry exhibitions, helps in the selection of good quality birds. ü Breeding of local poultry breeds: Since most of the small holder poultry farmers are poor, Government should extend assistance to improve the poultry farming system by providing good quality chicks to the backyard poultry and suggest for multiplication of birds at their own level from these good quality hens. Within a time frame the skills are to be transferred to farmers at village level. Attempt, however, should be made to retain broodiness in the local stocks since it makes the system auto generating. These hens can be used for producing the chicks at home level.

ü Record keeping: In order to improve egg production, there is a need to record the performance of individual hens for egg production. It is not a problem to obtain this information since each hen lays her egg in a separate nest regularly. This will provide information on laying capacity and hatching performance for each hen. Those hens with higher egg production and hatchability should be selected to reproduce next generation.

 

Native chicken breeds

 

The Indian birds are mostly nondescripts, and are of very little value as layers. A large number of flows of different size, shapes and colours, and for the most part resembling the jungle fowls, are found all over India. They vary in appearance according to the locality in which they have been bred. National bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (ICARNBAGR), Karnal, Haryana has recognized 19 native breeds of chicken (Table 4). They are Ankaleshwar, Aseel, Busra, Chittagong, Denki, Daothaiger, Ghagus, Harringhata black, Kadaknath, Kalasthi, Hansli, Kashmir Faverolla, Miri, Nicobari, Punjab brown, Tellicherry, Mewari, Kaunayen and Uttara. They are also some more unrecognized breeds of native chicken like Dumasil, Kalahandi, Phulbani and Gujuri in Odisha.

 

 

Breeding Strategies of native poultry-

 

Different parameters are considered for selecting and improving the performance of commercial chicken for egg or meat. Breeding strategies hitherto assumed that many of these parameters are controlled by polygenic inheritance and followed assessment of the same in any gives population. Pure breeding methods like mass selection, family selection, within family selection, index selection and their variants are adopted after assessing and apportioning the variance. Cross breeding is adopted at different levels where dominance contributes to the variance mostly. Specific inbred lines are produced and employed to fix some desirable characters. Diallel crosses are used to estimate general and specific combining abilities. Newer knowledge on molecular genetics and unraveling of chicken genome offer newer opportunities for faster, more accurate and using specialized poultry breeding programmes. Integration of emerging knowledge viz. MAS, QTL into existing breeding programmes is to the otting. However, commercial poultry breeding poses a danger to existing biodiversity witnessed the chicken breeds.

 

Breeding Native Chicken

Breeding of native chicken need to be viewed as operating at three different levels (Prabakaran, 2014)[19] . i) At the farmer level ii) At the Institutions iii) By corporate poultry

 

i) At the Farmer Level As the farmer rearing native chicken are rampant poor and are mostly illiterate, no planned breeding strategy is attempted. He continues to maintain the same flock strength of 5-20 birds bred from the same stock. Inbreeding is rampant. Egg production and fertility among cocks become poorer and poorer over subsequent generation. Birds become smaller the size; egg size gets small and the net become from backyard rearing of native chicken goes down, generation after generation.

ii) At the Institution Level Several government institutes viz., CARI, Izatnagar, DPR, Hyderabad, SAUs in many states viz. Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu etc., propagate pure breeds (or) improved varieties resulting from varied attempts and distribute them to the farmers for backyard rearing over the last two decades and more. The response from rural poor is growing even though the market acceptability for crossbred multi-colored strain has been comparatively lower than for purebred native chicken.

iii) By Corporate Poultry Commercial utilization of native chicken germplasm is also on the rise, because of the premium price fetched by the native chicken the market and 10% market share that exists for native chicken in poultry meat industry. The industry is also interested the retaining the specific attributes of native chicken meat while planning their expansion strategies. Purpose and Parameters Before planning the breeding strategy for native chicken, we need to take into consideration the purpose for which it is reared and the parameters that and to be improved or sustained. Native chicken is mostly reared by rural farmers for dual purpose i.e both for egg and meat. (Breeding native chicken for cock fight is totally a different approach adopted by a few farmers and since cock fight is banned legally as a village sport, let us not discuss the same here). Hence, the institutions also try to develop varieties that morphologically look like native chicken with multi-coloured plumage and improved egg production and growth potential. However, the corporate sector which is into commercial rearing of native chicken only for a few years now, is interested the developing native chicken for meat only because of the 150% more premium price fetched by country chicken meat in the market.

Parameters for Selection i) Selection strategy for native chicken should serve two purposes Improvement of economic parameters like body weight, egg number, fertility etc., so that the rural farmer gets maximum return out of his small sized backyard chicken units.

ii) Maintenance of characters specific to native chicken viz., appearance including plumage colour egg shell color, long shank and upright gaint especially among males, broodiness, disease resistance, egg and meat quality etc., So that native chicken retains its prime status in the market. Selection strategies for native chicken

i) Farmer Level The rural farmer level units are very small in size and most of the farmers lake any scientific knowledge to undertake planned breeding of native chicken. To avoid inbreeding and its all effects are reproductive parameters, small holder farmer units can exchange their cocks every year with another unit under veterinary supervision so that birds from a diseased flock is not brought in and also to maintain the purity of the flock.

ii) Institution Level At the institutions, commercial breeding strategies based on quantitative inheritance of economic parameters can be continued to improve the performance of native chicken. It may be selective breeding within the purebreeds or cross breeding with improved strains of exotic breeds, without jeopardizing the appearance and other specific qualities of preference among native chicken. They include colored plumage, browen egg shell, loug shank length etc. Hence, restrictions need to be applied in selection where necessary to ensure that the appearance, meat and egg quality are retained in the native chicken. Selection also need to be practiced keeping in mind the housing and feeding environment under which the progeny of the selected population are to be reared. Seasonal attempts have been made at the institution level to develop and distribute improved varieties for backyard rearing However, attempts on developing strains by selective breeding within pure breeds of native chicken were not many even though we often make a claim that all modern breeds of chicken around the world had their origin in Indian Jungle Fowl which implies that the native chicken has the required genetic potential.

iii) Industry Level The industry has not taken much care about developing improved strains of native chicken so far, because of the lower and distributed demand. A few fringe players adopt different yardsticks. Some lay emphasis on faster growth while some concentrate on appearance and meat quality. Breast angle shank length and egg number are some of the additional parameters considered.

 

Rural Poultry

• Local germplasm of chicken from Rajasthan was collected, purified, characterized and registered as “Mewari breed” of Indigenous chicken.
• Four varieties of rural chicken viz; Pratapdhan, Kamrupa, Narmadanidhi and Jharsim were developed using indigenous and exotic germplasm.
• Pratapdhan: AICRP on Poultry Breeding, MPUAT, Udaipur has developed a dual purpose chicken variety to cater the needs of rural poultry keepers coined as Pratapdhan which resembles local birds of Rajasthan. It lays brown eggs weighing around 52 g. The average adult body weight ranged from 1.4 to 3 kg in males and 1.2 to 2.7k g in females. It has higher egg production of 161 eggs which is 274% higher than local native (43 eggs).
• Kamrupa is a multi-coloured bird for rural poultry production developed under All India Coordinated Research Project on Poultry Breeding at Assam Agriculture University, Khanapara, Guwahati, Assam. It is three way cross developed using Assam local ecotype, Coloured Broiler and Dahlem Red population. Under backyard system, the adult body weight ranged from 1.3-1.5 kg , respectively. The male birds weigh 1.8-2.2 kg  at 40 weeks of age the annual egg production is 118-130 eggs with an egg weight of 52 grams.
• Narmadanidhi developed at AICRP centre Jabalpur has 25% inheritance of native i.e. local breed Kadaknath and 75% of improved broiler germplasm (Jabalpur col.). Dual purpose col. bird ‘Narmadanidhi’ is thus and outcome of specific breeding approaches aiming to utilize maximum heterosis, higher potential in the progeny. Adult body weight ranged from 1.5 to 2.2 kg in males and 1.3 to 1.7 kg in females. The annual egg production is 181 eggs in backyard having brown shell egg weighing up to 50.2g.
• Jharsim: The dual purpose rural variety Jharsim has attractive multi-colour plumage, perform better on low plane of nutrition, faster growth, optimum egg production and better adaptability to agro climatic conditions of Jharkhand. The adult body weight and annual egg production was up to 1.8 kg and 130 eggs, respectively in field condition. The egg weight is 52-55g at 40 weeks of age.

 

Native chicken breeds

NC comprise mostly of non-descript types in the country. However, till date a total of 19 breeds have been recognized and registered as native breeds of chicken in India. They are Aseel, Kadaknath, Ghagus, Nicobari, Ankaleshwar, Bursa, Chitagong, Denki, Daothigir, Haringhatta Black, Kalashthi, Kashmir Faverolla, Miri, Punjab Brown, Tellichery, Mewari, Kaunayen, Hansli, and Uttara (http://www.nbagr.res.in/regchi.html ). Some of the lesser known NC ecotypes such as Tripura black, Titri, Teni, Brown Desi, etc were also reported. NC with major genes of tropical adaptability features such as naked neck and frizzle genes (Frizzle fowl) are also available. Among NC most popular breeds are Aseel, Kadaknath, Ghagus and Nicobari. These breeds are witnessing high demand due to their unique attributes. Some of the important NC breeds mentioned below were characterized in detail for production traits.

• Aseel:It is the most popular breed of India and it is known for aggressive behaviour, fighting quality and majestic gait. Its breeding tract is located in coastal Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh states. Seven varieties of Aseel breed such as Peela (Golden red), Yakub (black and red), Nurie (White), Kagar (black), Sabja (white and golden or black with yellow or silver), Teekar (brown) and Reza (light red) were reported (Panda and Mohapatra 1989). Furthermore, farmers of coastal Andhra Pradesh rear different ecotypes of Aseel breed and such ecotypes of Aseel breeds were recently collected from their home tract and are being characterized and conserved under semi-intensive system of rearing at ICAR-Directorate of Poultry Research (ICAR-DPR), Hyderabad. The annual egg production of Aseel breed was 64 eggs (Rajkumar et al 2017).
• Kadaknath: This breed is also known as ‘Kalamashi’in Hindi due to its black coloured flesh. This black colour is due to hyperpigmentation associated with fibromelanosis (Fm) gene (Arora et al 2011). In this breed all body parts including blood and flesh are black in colour. Three varieties of this breed were reported viz., Jet black, Golden and Penciled based on plumage colour pattern. The home tract of this breed is inJhabua and Dhar districts of western Madhya Pradesh. The meat of this breed although appears to be repulsive for sight has delicious flavour (Panda and Mohapatra 1989) and is reported to have high protein (22 to 25%) content (Mohan et al 2008; Haunshi et al 2013). Its body size is small. The annual egg production of Kadaknath was in the range of 93.6 to 105 eggs (Singh and Prasad 2005, http://www.icar.org.in/cari/native.html.
• Ghagus:It is a medium sized bird with good mothering ability and broodiness character. Male birds of this breed are morphologically characterized by the shining bluish black feathers on breast, tail and thighs. Neck is covered with golden yellow feathers. Female birds have mostly brown coloured plumage. (Haunshi et al 2015a). Its native tract is located in Kolar district of Karnataka and border areas of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka (Anonymous 2011). They are known for high incidence of broodiness (Up to 66% of the flock) and good fertility (91.5%) and hatchability (90.8% on fertile eggs set). Annual egg production recorded was 116 eggs with egg weight of 47.62g at 72 weeks of age (Haunshi et al 2019b).
• Nicobari:Nicobari breed was evolved by the Nicobari tribes in the Nicobar group of Islands. They were mostly reared in free range conditions by the tribal people. They are brownish matty coloured, medium sized birds with compact body, short legs, single comb and pink or red coloured wattles. They have short and thick necks, bulged breast and long saddle feathers. Nicobari fowls are classified as dwarf birds with short shank of 3.7 cm length at 10 weeks of age (Chatterjee and Yadav 2008). Annual egg production recorded was 169.1 with egg weight of 46.16g at 72 weeks of age (Haunshi et al 2019b).
• Miri:These are small sized compact birds reared mainly by Miri (Mising) tribes of Assam. Its native breeding tract is located in upper Assam districts. Egg production up to 40 weeks of age was 33.59 eggs with egg weight of 38.67g at 40 weeks and age at first egg of 147 days. Body weight at 40 weeks of age was 1507 and 1214g respectively in male and female birds (Haunshi et al 2009).
• Mewari:The home tract of this breed is Mewari region of Rajastan. Mewari breed is light to dark brown colour plumage with long arching tail feathers, single comb and yellow shank and skin. Adult weight is about 1.9 kg in cocks and 1.2 kg in hens. Annual egg production ranges from 37 to 52. Egg weight is about 53 g (Yadav et al 2017).
• Hansli: This breed is predominantly reared in Mayurbhanjand some parts of Keonjhardistrict of Odisha. Birds of this breed phenotypically resemble to Aseel breed. The 20 weeks body weight of male and female birds was reported to be 1629 and 1318g respectively (Behera et al 2017).
• Uttara: It is the latest breed to be registered in breed registry of NBAGR, Karnal. Its native tract is located in hill districts of Uttarakhand state. It has black coloured plumage, feathered shanks, single comb and white skin. The twenty weeks body weight was 1295 and 1129g in male and females respectively. They produce about 137 eggs in a year (Kumar et al 2018).

 

NATIVE BREEDS OF CHICKEN OF INDIA  CAN BE DOWNLOADED FROM HERE-

 

Rural backyard poultry breeds of India

 

Rural poultry production constitutes important component of agricultural economy in India. The importance of native breeds of poultry birds for rural economy in developing and underdeveloped countries mostly very high. The low production performance of native breeds of chickens may be improved through selection and crossbreeding. Increase in production volume and productivity per bird may largely be attributed to the combined crossbred and purebred selection. The development of genetically superior stocks capable of higher production, even under adverse climatic conditions. Cross breeding with exotic germ plasm showed the improvement; however, selection in native breeds can bring the improvement permanently. Considering that the market for native chicken meat and egg is growing, it is necessary that the scientists take care in maintain the purity of native breeds while improving their performance. Hence, it is imperative that selective breeding with in pure breeds available locally should be the obvious choice. The institutions need to gather and raise a base population of the native breed stabilize the same, assess the variance in the parameters of choice, apply restrictions where necessary while selecting for multiple characters and adopt conventional breeding strategies to develop new improved strains within each breed. Distribution of the germplasm to the farmers backyards and assessment of their performance and acceptability is also required before the developed strain is released for propagation. This approach will also help the maintaining the biodiversity that is prevalent among stocks maintained by the rural farmers. It will also ensure that the native chicken retain their prime position in the market to offer maximum economic advantage to the resource poor rural farmers and help the objective of retaining the biodiversity to meet the future challenges too.

DR MUKESH PD. SRIVASTAVA,POULTRY CONSULTANT