Ripon Kumar Dutta
Department of Zoology, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi 6205, Bangladesh
M. Saiful Islam*
Department of Zoology, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi 6205, Bangladesh
Md. Ashraful Kabir
Present address: Department of Biology, Holy Land College, Uttar Balubari, Dinajpur 5200, Bangladesh
Management practices, Disease incidence, Indigenous knowledge, Conditions, Problems and opinions of poultry farmers.
Socio-economic and Policy
Performance
Experimental design: Poultry enterprises of the urban, semi-urban and rural areas of the Rajshahi District were chosen at random to facilitate the purpose of the study. A schedule interview was conducted with the poultry farmers to study the management practices, disease incidences, uses of indigenous knowledge (IK), farmers conditions (education levels, occupation, training and extension facilities), problems encountered by the poultry farmers and opinions regarding improvement of poultry farming in the study area. The interview schedules appeared to be reliable because of the consistency of the parameters used and results obtained or observations recorded throughout the investigation. Source and description of the farms: The small (n=18), medium (n=18) and large (n=18) poultry farms (one Government and 54 private farms) consisting of EXO and CRO chickens, and village houses (n=18) that reared IND chicken at six Upozillas of Rajshahi District viz., Boalia, Godagari, Motihar, Mohonpur, Poba and Rajpara, were surveyed. For surveying the disease incidence, uses of indigenous knowledge (IK), farmers’ conditions and opinions, the poultry farmers were interviewed and the data were collected using interview schedule designed for the purpose. Data were collected during the period from July 2009 to June 2010. Parameters studied: Eighteen parameters on management practices viz., chicken providers, methods of transportation, brooding temperature, vaccination programme, room temperature, feed supply, use of disinfectants, bio-security measures, boundary wall, exhaust fan, sources of water, human residence, disposal of excreta, disposal of dead bodies, access to wild animals, previous disease record, prevailing poultry diseases, and availability of veterinary services were recorded using a 5 scale scoring system where score 5 was considered excellent, 4 as good, 3 as satisfactory, 2 as not good and 1 as unacceptable. Moreover, existing 20 indigenous knowledge (IK) items involving food and feeding practices and healthcare, 13 diseases, three conditions of the poultry farmers involving their education, occupation and landholding, 11 problems encountered by the farmers and top 10 opinions of the farmers on improving poultry farming in the study area were recorded to assess the current status of poultry farming in Rajshahi. Statistical analyses: The qualitative and quantitative data collected from the visited farms were subjected to statistical analyses for interpretations. Mean±SD values on the management parameters were used for graphical representations. For the rest, percentage calculations were used in tabular forms. A statistical package (SPSS version 11.0 for Windows) was used for analyzing the data.
J. Life Earth Sci., Vol. 7: 43-49, 2012 ISSN 1990-4827
Journal