May 22, 2007

Indian company brings chickens back to backyard farms
 

While in most countries, chicken companies are trying to take chickens out of backyard farms and putting them into integrators, one Indian company seeks to do the opposite: putting chickens back to the backyard farms where they previously belonged.

Vinod Kapur, the 72-year-old founder of Keggfarms, says the firm has been selling chicks to be reared by villagers for the past ten years.

By genetically breeding high-yielding chickens, called kuroilers, and supplying them to the village women, Keggfarms hopes that its chicken breed would take off in the countryside.

The idea was to keep the benefits of country chicken while making it more profitable for the housewives who rear the chickens.

It was revolutionary enough that Harvard Business School has recognized it as a development model and the FAO has documented it as one for sustainable rural development.

The genetically bred chickens are less prone to diseases, stronger, and gave more eggs and meat, Kapur said. 

Keggfarms appointed 2,000 vendors to sell chickens who got their supplies from yet another 2,000 independent, self funded mother units spread across seven states.

The vendors sell the chicks in the villages, helping the rural poor earn extra income through the rearing of these chickens.  

Keggfarms said it has helped alleviate poverty for at least 800,000 people, having sold 18 million chicks last year.