Author(s): Ramesh Kumar Mishra, Arpita Shrivastava, AK Tomar and S Vaisampayan

Abstract: In India, poor rural farmer mostly rear poultry in backyard of their houses. The study was conducted to see the adoptability, production and economic performance of Kadaknath chicken in comparison to existing nondescript chicken reared in backyard poultry farming in Katni district of Madhya Pradesh. A total of 75 day old Kadaknath chicks were purchased from Department of Poultry Science, NDVSU, Jabalpur and randomly distributed to five farmers (15 chicks to each) who were already involved in backyard poultry farming with 10-15 nondescript local chicken. Similar farming practices were followed for both Kadaknath and existing nondescript bird. The data regarding adult body weight (g), age at 1^st laying (wk), egg production (no/bird/year), egg weight (g), mortality (%), cost involved (Rs), profit (Rs) and benefit cost ratio (B:C Ratio) were recorded during the study. The data obtained regarding adult body weight (1298.00±1.32g), body weight gain (1266.40±1.32g), age at 1^st laying (23.20±0.90 wk), egg production (96.00±1.00) and benefit cost ratio (7.00±0.83) for Kadaknath were significantly higher (p<0.05) over the data recorded for non descript local chicken regarding adult body weight (1186.00±1.30g), body weight gain (1155.60±1.30g), age at 1^st laying (25.00±0.89 wk), egg production (61.00±0.99) and benefit cost ratio (4.79±0.78) for. However non significant (p<0.05) difference were found in chick weight and mortality percent among both the breed. On the basis of present findings we can conclude that Kdaknath breed of chicken is economical and able to produce higher meat and egg per bird per year than existing nondescript chicken in backyard rearing system as practiced by rural poultry farmers of Katni district of Madhya Pradesh.

DOI: 10.33545/26174693.2024.v8.i3Sb.700