Follow up Visit to Block and Monitoring of Animal Seed distributed among the beneficiaries under Scheduled Caste Sub Plan

Hingalganj is a block under North 24 Parganas district of . As per the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, the scheduled caste population in the block is about 65%.

ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Eastern Regional Station (ERS), Kolkata conducted a 2nd follow up program in the said block on the 8th of October, 2020. The purpose of the visit was to promote and support the women beneficiaries who received Gramapriya chicks on the 13th of December, 2019 from ICAR-IVRI-ERS. Dr. G. K. Das, Principal Scientist, and Dr.

Arun Kumar Das, Senior Scientist from IVRI-ERS made door to door visit of individual houses of 7 beneficiaries, who could be contacted over telephone. Contact with many other beneficiaries could not be made due to the devastating cyclone “Amphan” during May 2020 and total disruption of the telephonic network. Even after the devastating cyclone and lockdown due to the covid-19 pandemic, the beneficiaries could save the distributed inputs.

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The team members visited the individual house and interacted with each beneficiary. All the beneficiaries shared their experiences related to challenges faced during the hard times in rearing of the chicks.

Data pertaining to the present status of the chicks, chick mortality, present strength, survivability rate of chicks, the overall growth of the chicks, and type of shelter/housing and nutritional management provided to the birds, health status, and occurrence of diseases, problems or constraints faced by the beneficiaries while rearing the birds were recorded.

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Fig: Eggs of Gramapriya birds obtained at beneficiary field1,2,3and Chicks born from the eggs fostered by the desi hens4,5,6,7 and 8[Photographs received from the beneficiaries except 8]

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INPUT DISTRIBUTION

At the last, as a token of appreciation for successful rearing of chicken inspite of all adverse conditions some lateral inputs like feeder, chick drinker, chick tray, steel feeder etc. sanitation kit comprising hand sanitizer, hand wash, mask, cap, and a printed large bag along with feed supplements like vitamins, minerals, immune modulators were given to each beneficiary.

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