Mixed Farming in Backyard

Poultry System
It’s Prospective & Constraints

Presented By
S. Shwetha kanthi
RVM/09-24
Dept of Veterinary Extension
Mixed Farming in backyard
Definition
 Bringing crops and live stock
into an interactive relationship with the
expectations, that together as opposed to
alone they will generate positive effects on
outcomes of interests such as profitability
and productivity and conversion of
non renewable resources
-Allen et al-2007
 Advantages
 Mixed back yard farming provides various animal
species, the flexibility to change from one species
to the other, and the low-external-input nature of
the management system.
 Most families base their livestock keeping on
diversified husbandry practices : poultry and pigs
scavenge around and do not require major labour
or capital input,
 cuy (guinea pig) are kept in the kitchen, fed on
leftovers.
 Though there is high mortality amongst these
animals, their output is produced against very low
cost.
 Cont…..
 Farmers keep cows, buffaloes, sheep and
goats including small numbers of poultry in
backyard to meet their domestic needs.
 Animals are raised on agricultural waste.
 The animal power is used for agricultural
operation and the dung is used as manure
and fuel.
 Cont…….
 Good amount of feed for animals is available
from the system itself
 The farmyard manure - manuring of crops-
30-35% savings in fertilizers
 It may be possible to reach the some level of
yield with proportionately less input in the
integrated farming
 Mixed farming involving diversified
components such as agriculture,
forestry, and A.H have been proved to
be economically viable, technically
feasible, environmentally sustainable,
and socially acceptable.
 Who are practicing
 The small landholder, squatter or landless
peasant practised mixed farming on small
holdings, growing mixtures of fruit trees,
annual plants, vegetables, etc., and rearing
free-range poultry for eggs and meat, and
tethered pigs, sheep, goats or cattle on
roadsides or open lands.
 All can be reared on domestic waste.
Models of Mixed Farming
INCOME

GARDEN HUMAN

INTER CROP BIRDS

MANURE MEAT AND

EGGS
 Features of mixed farming

 Assured subsistence is high priority

 Mixed cropping and livestock common for
risk coverage
 local resources –including human resources
 Recycle all products
 Crop varieties, rotation and mixed farming
provide grain and enough straw to meet
human and animal needs.
 Multi-purpose objectives
 Features of mixed farming
Sizeable population of small animals in semi-
arid and arid areas
Are easy to manage and to sell
Observed through generations
Use of high yielding varieties of crops or
livestock and of chemical fertilisers and
pesticides is minimal
Storage of produce for family use has priority
and only surplus, if any, is sold
 Principles of farming
 Mixed backyard farms are systems that consist of
different parts, which together should act as a
whole
 They thus need to be studied in their entirety and
not as separate parts
 That principle is here referred to as the
"command ideotype“ (Donald, 1981; Schiere et al.,
1999)
 Study together with the awareness that crops and
animals have multiple functions
 Each individual unit should contribute a
minimum of 18-20% to their counterparts
 Forms of mixed backyard farming

 Mixed farming systems can be classified in

many ways - based on land size, type of
crops and animals , Geographical
distribution, market orientation, etc.
 On-farm versus between-farm
 Mixing within crops and/or animal systems
 Diversified versus integrated systems
Holistic nature
DAIRY

CROPS FISHERY

HOUSE HOLD
AND MARKET

POULTRY PIG

FORESTRY
 Methods - commercial
 Poultry + Cows and buffaloes
 Poultry + Agri farming
 Poultry + Piggery
 Poultry + Sheep and goat
 Poultry + Fish farming
 Poultry + Azolla + Duck farming
POULTRY + LARGE ANIMALS
POULTRY + LARGE ANIMALS
DUCK + FISH FARMING
 China

POULTRY+PIGGER
Y
POULTRY + AZOLLA + DUCK
FARMING
 Rice-poultry-fish

Rice crop as per recommended practice

Irrigated through fish pond water
Rice bran for poultry feed
Rice bran and straw in fish pond
Recycling of crop residues
Poultry excreta to rice field
Cashew apple waste

 Dm-18%
 Cf-8.5%
 20% feed of vanaraja
-kari kanthimath et al
 Scavenging birds
 Uses almost no inputs and it can still be a viable
component in the mixed farm.
 Scavenging chickens can be fed with waste
products and grains to supplement the weeds and
insects that are found in the backyard.
 Eggs from scavenging chickens in mixed farming
systems are preferred to eggs from the commercial
farms.
In Nicaragua the eggs from the mixed farming
system are called huevos de amor (love eggs) and
people prefer them because of their yellow yolks
and freshness.
 Ducks and geese
 Ducks and geese are basically waterfowl, but they
can do without water and, except in some rare
cases, the keeping of these birds does not develop
into large-scale, high-input production.
 Rare cases of specialized production of these
animals are, for example, geese for "foie gras" (fat
liver) or ducks for meat in countries such as
France and China
 cont....
 More typical for mixed farming systems is
duck keeping for eggs in harvested rice
fields, such as in Java, where fallen grains,
weeds, snails and worms provide free feed
for large flocks of special runner ducks kept
by individuals from the village. The
occasional use of geese as "watchdogs” in
farms
Fish-Back yard poultry
 Farmer can practise the poultry-fish
farming integrated system only when a 100
m2 fish pond can be fed with 1 kg dried
poultry manure per day
 15 chicken - 1-1.2 kg manure/day
POULTRY + LARGE ANIMALS
POULTRY + AGRI FARMING
POULTRY+PIGGERY
POULTRY+ SHEEP AND GOAT
POULTRY + FISH FARMING
POULTRY + AZOLLA + DUCK
FARMING
 Constraints
 Multi tasking
 Non availability
 Lack of Know-how on feed
supplementing constitution
 Marketing
 Investment
 Cont……
 Some smaller farmers are increasingly
dependent on production methods based on a
mixture of new and traditional practices.
 These include utilising local natural feeds,
recycling waste,
 Integrating their livestock with cropping
activities, limited aquaculture production
 The limit of land availability dictates that
integrated, intensive methods are risky
Studies
The integrated farming system with 4
bullocks + 2 cow + 2 buffaloes + 25 goats
along with other subsidiaries like poultry
and duck is the most beneficial system.
Rural women’s perceptions and preferences with regard to
mixed farming poultry production.

1. The major interest of women in backyard poultry is as a

source of small cash and nutritious food for the family at
low cost.
2. Women are not interested in increasing the number of
birds and add other species due to management
difficulties and the need for external inputs it would
require.
3. The local breeds are preferred since they are easy to
manage. They are able to protect themselves from
predators, but the most important reason is that local
birds and eggs are sold at a premium.
 Cont……
4. Backyard poultry permit entertainment of
important guests and functions.
5. Women consider diseases in chicks the
major problem in poultry keeping.
6. women felt it difficult at multi tasking
It has been calculated that 90% of rural
families in central and south Bolivia earn
more than 50% of their income through
activities like mixed farming .
(Jimenez Sardon, 1984)
 Is it a sign of improvement?

The choice of mixed farming is not always a sign of improvement.

Fulani herdsmen in West Africa engage in crop production only
when forced by circumstances, such as drought or animal
diseases, leading to severe losses in livestock, making
continuation of their former way of life impossible.
Mixed farming is for them a poverty-induced option.
Resource-poor farmers going into mixed farming have to apply
labour- intensive techniques (their only resource) and, because of
their low purchasing power, they cannot afford external inputs
and have no option but to overexploit the environment.
(Based on Slingerland, 2000.)
 Where we stand
 Employing 1.5 million persons and
contributing 35,000 cr to GNP
 3rd Egg, 5th Meat!
 B.Y.P - 30% to Egg Production
Producing 41 Billion Eggs
1600 Million Meat
 What's the need of the
hour
 Research requirements in support of crop-
livestock-tree systems in Asia are baseline studies
to quantify energy flows.
 Simulation studies to identify possible coefficient
changes in the system.
 Field testing of possible interventions and new
technologies
 “Test marketing" of proposed developments on
representative sub populations within the region.
 It is further suggested (Timor, 1992) that such
studies need to be carried out across national
boundaries within ecoregions.
 Cont……..
 Soil health aspects and nutrient flow system
 Farming system developed for the poorest
and land less labor
 Women empowerment
 Whole By analysis for house hold nutrition
and income security and gain full
employment for folk and youth
 Creation of data base for M.F for different
agro climatic regions.
 Cont……
This general situation of integrated farming
practices has been mainly reversed and there
are at least three aspects to this:
 The search for modernisation of agriculture;
 Pressures of the wider economy on
agriculture and resource use
 The failure to recognise and deal with
agriculture for local consumption.
 Conclusions
Improved backyard poultry and goat
production would not only improve income of
women but would also contribute to family
nutrition.
women Para-extension workers
Skill training
For health control would be needed.
Formation of women's groups for sale of milk,
animals, eggs and birds need be organised
 Productivity Aims
 Sustainability
 Balanced diet
 Clean environment
 Recycling of resources
 Round the year income
 Adoption of new tech
 Solving energy crisis
 Increase standard
 Increase input-out put efficiency
 Aims
• Soil and climate
• Future resolution
• Present level of resource utility
• Economics
• Managing skills
• Alternate land using Options
• Pooling and sharing of resources
• Consumption, preservation, Utilization of farm
bio mass
 `Mixed farming in backyard ’
type of rearing Is a critical concept or
can it be implemented ?
Mass production is not needed but

production by masses is needed

THANK YOU