• Out of the 20 members, three are engaged in beedi rolling, two members in tailoring, five members engaged as agricultural labourers and the remaining are housewives.  

• They are having very tiny homesteads with few coconut palms; the income from farming alone is not sufficient to meet their livelihood requirement.

• The household had only few poultry birds of local breed, which were having low productivity and susceptible to various diseases.

PCCDC organized training programme on backyard poultry rearing; experts from the Department of Animal Husbandry imparted the training.     PCCDC arranged the Gramalakshmi poultry chicks to the members.     The Gramalakshmi poultry birds are having the capacity to lay 200-250 eggs/bird/year from the 4-5th month onwards and they do not require any special attention and are easily adjusted to the backyard system of rearing.             The average net returns from backyard poultry rearing per year is Rs. 25000/- per batch of 200 poultry birds.

BACKYARD POULTRY REARING IN COCONUT BASED HOMESTEADS WOULD BE A VIABLE INTERVENTION TO ENHANCE THE INCOME OF THE POOR FAMILIES