Backyard poultry is practised by the majority of the poor and marginalized rural households all over India. These households rely on low-cost poultry rearing to supplement and enhance their livelihood. It not only provides nutritional security but also reduces livelihood vulnerability and promotes gender equity. The nation has experienced one of the largest exoduses of smallholders and waged labours due to Covid-19 pandemic. This has put more pressure on the families to feed the members and find employment at the local level.

“I learned about this chicken during the orientation program, this looks all black including meat and is rich in protein and iron. I was so excited to the rear for my family,” says Hironda Bai from Baigakheda village.

Considering the poor health condition among tribal children in remote villages of Mandla district, Caritas India took the efforts through Smallholder Adaptive Farming and Bio-Diversity Network (SAFBIN) program in collaboration with its implementing partner Jabalpur Diocesan Social Service Societies (JDSSS) introduced this indigenous poultry breed to ensure additional livelihood and nutrition support.

Co-funded by Caritas Switzerland and Caritas Austria, the program introduced Kadaknath a native breed of Jhabua and Dhar districts in western parts of Madhya Pradesh. This indigenous breed has been reared by Tribals over a long period of time and its unique breed characteristics have been established through many generations. It has a capacity to tolerate extreme climatic conditions of summer heat and cold winter stress and thrives very well under minimal management inputs like poor housing, no health care or supplementary feeding requires while exhibiting an appreciable degree of resistance to diseases compared to other breeds.

While discussing the integrated small-scale farming system in smallholder farmers collectives (SHFC) planning meeting, smallholders especially women members gave more emphasis on the local food and nutrition security. The observations and recommendations of SHFC members were taken seriously by the local team. Among others, integrating backyard poultry is one of the major recommendations which was discussed among the respective SHFCs on the identification of suitable breeds in context to the local climate with higher success rates.

As the COVID-19 transmission wreaked havoc on lives of smallholder farmers, JDSSS together with the department of animal husbandry has trained 55 smallholder farmers on backyard poultry management. 137 units (Kadaknath) are planned to be distributed in Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh out of which 64 units were distributed in four smallholder farmers collective. The feed, vaccination and medicine will be provided by the local department at No-Cost basis to the smallholders.

“Though we used to rear indigenous local chicken at our homes, this is interesting to see the black chicken. Thanks to SAFBIN for accepting our request and ensure one more component to our small farm,” expressed Saraswati Bai, one of the SHFC member of Katigahan village.

Almost all the tribal household rear backyard indigenous poultry and this activity is the domain of women and more suitable to their context. Poultry has multiple roles in the lives of tribal households ranging from economic and nutritional security to socio-cultural aspects. Kadaknath is a black coloured indigenous chicken. Its black meat has an intense distinctive taste.  It contains approx 25% of protein which is higher than the other breed, rich in vitamin B1, B2, B6 & B12, C, E, calcium, phosphorus and iron and many more. The birds are maintained in a free-range system where they search for grains and insects during the day and a fistful of grains like crushed jowar (millets) or maize is offered once or twice a day. Woven bamboo baskets are used as night shelters for protection against predators.