Women Resurrecting Poultry Biodiversity and Livelihoods
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Women resurrecting poultry biodiversity and livelihoods Source South Asia Pro Poor Livestock Policy Program (SAPPLPP) Keywords Poultry, women, partnerships Country of first practice India ID and publishing year 7681 and 2012 Sustainable Development Goals No poverty, gender equality, and life on land Summary The Aseel is reared under backyard poultry by women (from bird selection to sale). management systems and is a vital source Today this indigenous breed, which has its of meat and income. However, this bird is lineage from the original Red Jungle Fowl, is threatened due to high production losses, threatened due to high production losses, infectious diseases and policies promoting infectious diseases and policies promoting non-local breeds. This practice describes non-local breeds. As a result, although how disease prevention and bio-diversity a farmer could potentially earn over conservation strategies helped women Rs. 4 000 per adult hen yearly (see Table 1), farmers in preserving the Aseel. actual earnings are less than half of this, due to losses resulting from egg spoilage / Description infertile eggs and chick mortality. 1. Background Figure 1. Women resurrecting poultry biodiversity and livelihoods The Aseel is an important part of Âdivâsîs culture in the East Godavari district. Âdivâsîs is the Devanagri word for original inhabitants and is an umbrella term for a heterogeneous set of ethnic and tribal groups believed to be the aboriginal population of India and comprise a substantial indigenous minority. Tribal people constitute 8.2 percent of the © FAO/TECA nation’s total population, over 84 million people according to the 2001 census. Adivasi societies are particularly present in the Indian states of Orissa, Madhya Annual poultry mortality is also remarkably Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, high at 70 to 80 percent due to Ranikhet Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, (New Castle disease), Fowl Jharkhand, West Bengal, Mizoram and other Pox, Bacterial White diarrhoea North-Eastern states, and the Andaman and etc. This scenario had, until TECA Nicobar Island. The Aseel bird is also the only recently, translated into an TECHNOLOGIES resource completely owned and controlled average annual loss of and PRACTICES for SMALL AGRICULTURAL 1/5 PRODUCERS Capacity Development Rs. 30 000 to Rs. 50 000 per village, which Aseel gene pool with farmers finding it in turn led to heightened vulnerability increasingly difficult to purchase pure Aseel and indebtedness. High bird mortality and to replace their stock. Efforts undertaken by morbidity had also been threatening the local government agencies promoting Table 1: Economics of Aseel Backyard-Poultry Production System Actual Income1 Actual income² Variable/-1 Aseel hen- Potential income 1998 2008 No of clutches /year 3 3 3 No of eggs/clutch 12 12 15 Total no of eggs /year 36 36 45 Egg spoilage/breakage 2 4eggs*3clutch=12 2eggs*3clutch=6 Chicks born 34 24 39 Chick mortality 2 7 7 Total loss 4/36 (11%) 19/36 (53%) 13/45 (28%) Chicks survived 32 17 32 Value of offspring-1/2 hens and 1/2 cockerels Cockerels @ Rs 200/bird 16* Rs 200 9* Rs 250 = Rs 8* Rs 200 = 1,600 (1998) and Rs 250/bird (2008) =3,200 2,250 Hens @ Rs 100/bird (1998) 16* Rs 100 9* Rs 140 = Rs 9* Rs 100 = 900 and 140/bird (2008) =1,600 1,260 Vaata- Traditional Sharing system: Offered for Sharing 4 Received back & sold 15 birds sold @ Rs 2300 Total income Rs 4,800 Rs 2,500 Rs 5,810 Expenditure: Feed Rs 700 Rs 700 Rs 603 Health care expenses (vacci- Rs 36 Nil Nil4 nations etc) Rs 5,750 Net income: Rs 4,064 Rs 1,800 10 chicks from 3rd clutch Source: FAO 2012 1 Based on the Participatory rural surveys in villages before intervention ² Figures are indicative, based on randomly selected household from a sample survey in Jan 2008 3 Broken rice, ganti, taudu, bran fed from their own produce for 8 to 9 months in a year 4 Vaccinations sourced from Animal Health Department and use of ethno veterinary medicine locally available. 2/5 non-local breeds (such as Giriraja) that have recipient was asked to return half the high egg producing capacity were found to subsequent chicks produced by the hens produce birds that are incompatible with to the group corpus. The returned chicks local preferences for meat and indigenous were redistributed free or sold and the practices such as cock fighting and religious savings were accumulated within the Gotti sacrifices. This loss of biodiversity and accounts. In 1999, 200 hens and 67 cocks income warranted immediate efforts that were distributed to 196 women in 20 villages could reinforce the genetic integrity of Aseel and at the end of the following year there and strengthen local livelihood systems. were 1 414 offspring, with 194 eggs yet to Figure 2. Poultry - birds hatch. To illustrate the impact of this Vaata, in village Noogamamidi in 2001, beneficiaries returned 55 chicks to the group corpus. As there were no further takers in the village, the village Gotti sold the chicks and earned Rs. 2 899. The next year, an additional 54 women © FAO/TECA joined the poultry Vaata system and over the next seven years, the offspring of the original Aseel germplasm from this one village spread to 63 women, in six other villages. 2. How did the good practice work? This activity was purely funded by women In 1996, a group of non-government themselves with Rs. 60 000 of group organisations (Anthra, Girijana Deepika savings serving as the initial investment and Yakshi) studied local Aseel production for purchasing birds. Money was also systems in 24 adivasi villages of East earmarked for provision of a poultry medical Godavari and initiated disease prevention kit for each village. These costs were fully and bio-diversity conservation strategies. recovered by the end of the first year itself. Activities included training of village poultry Given the success of the initiative, women health workers and introduction of basic started a village revolving fund for medicines healthcare practices such as vaccinations and and vaccinations wherein each member de-worming, as also encouraging use of local contributed Rs. 3 to 5 per month for disease herbal remedies in prevention and first aid, control. To support this initiative, the NGO building women’s capacities to effectively consortium trained 71 animal health workers manage and feed their poultry, empowering between 1992 and 2004, of which 60 percent women to access preventive vaccinations were women. These 40 day trainings covered from government services and encouraging all aspects of animal health with special local poultry asset creation under the emphasis on poultry care and management traditional Vaata system. including identification and prevention of Under this Vaata, individual women production losses, poultry nutrition, housing, members of Gottis (local village women’s vaccination, herbal medicines for disease groups) were given a few Aseel hens and control and first aid. The women’s Gottis each village some breeding cocks. Each were also able to advocate for and mobilise 3/5 Ranikhet prevention vaccinations from the were encouraging higher home consumption state Animal Husbandry Department and of birds that improved family nutrition. initiated vaccination drives reaching out to 2.1 Key learnings 12 000 birds across 45 villages. Overcoming the greatest challenge of obtaining sufficient This good practice showcases the livelihood quantities of vaccines prior to the outbreak security and community empowerment season, was considered one of their biggest brought in by preserving the Aseel as the achievements by the Gotti women. preferred breed of choice by the adivasi women of East Godavari. It also showcases Efforts to improve the nutritional base of that despite livestock care being perceived poultry were also introduced to reduce feed as a male occupation, women not only costs. While earlier poultry scavenging had took informed, technically sound decisions been supplemented through by-products related to Vaata management but also of food crops, massive shifts to commercial lobbied with government departments crops such as cotton and tobacco had to control diseases at the village level. In resulted in a lower nutritional plane for the fact, many women expressed a keen desire birds. The NGO consortium worked with to have access to this specialised form local groups to rebuild crop diversity (millets, of knowledge which had been denied to pulses and oil seeds) that contributed to them over the years. However, despite both food-security for humans and left success, these women continue to struggle adequate crop-residues such as fodder for for timely access to vaccinations to save animals and feed for poultry. A recent survey their precious birds against Raniket and carried out, revealed that 1 032 farmers, Fowl Pox and fight the fear of mortality had cultivated 20 different types of food and morbidity every year. Another grave crops in 3 096 acres, which was 60 percent concern of tribal women in recent years has of the total available cultivable land. These been the possible disastrous consequences figures were in contrast to 1998, where the of a bird-flu epidemic and the fear that average coverage of food crops was less than the administration would unfairly target 25 percent. backyard poultry and destroy the very birds In 2002, the NGO consortium that had that have been so painstakingly resurrected. been supporting the Gottis stopped direct Further, despite positive policy frame involvement and encouraged the groups conditions like the Brundtland report (1987) to develop village based implementation that drew attention to mounting loss of strategies themselves. By January 2008, biodiversity of plants and animals, national the Gottis had organised themselves into a responses to biodiversity loss continue federation called Tholakari Adivasi Mahila to flag issues such as indiscriminate Vedika with a membership of 1800 women breeding and a lack of farmer’s awareness spread across 80 villages.