Vulnerable rural women in Odisha are reducing seasonal distress migration through a sustainable backyard poultry project. By utilizing low cost local innovations like Azolla feed and bamboo structures, they are reducing expenses, improving household nutrition and generating regular cash income to rebuild resilient lives in their remote forest fringe villages.
Across the forest-fringed villages of Odisha, where small patches of rainfed land struggle to support families and seasonal migration has become a way of life, a quiet transformation is taking place. In the remote villages of Daspalla Block in Nayagarh district and Barkote Block of Deogarh district, hundreds of women are proving that resilience does not always begin with large investments or sophisticated technologies. Sometimes, it begins with ten chicks, a small Azolla pit, and the determination to rebuild a life.
For many families living in these landscapes, agriculture alone is no longer enough. Rocky terrain, erratic rainfall, shrinking farm sizes, limited irrigation, and increasing climate uncertainty have reduced crop productivity over the years. Many households own less than half an acre of land, while some own only small homestead plots. Medical emergencies, crop failures, and loss of wage opportunities frequently push families into debt, forcing them to borrow from informal moneylenders or migrate in search of work. Women—especially widows and female-headed households—often bear the greatest burden of these crises.
Backyard poultry has long been part of rural life in India. However, traditional poultry keeping often remains small in scale, characterized by high chick mortality, disease outbreaks, irregular feeding, and limited market orientation. Consequently, its full economic potential is rarely realized.
In this challenging background, NIRMAN in collaboration with SHIVIA UK, implemented the Backyard Poultry Development Services Project for creating meaningful livelihood opportunities for the most vulnerable rural households. Rather than introducing high-cost commercial poultry systems, the project builds upon locally available resources, indigenous knowledge, and simple biological innovations. Backyard poultry was perceived as a sustainable micro-enterprise rather than a passive household activity.
The initiative
The project was first implemented in Daspalla in April 2022, covering 22 villages under 2 Gram Panchayats. Village-level meetings were conducted by the NIRMAN team to explain the objectives and key components of the project, along with the process and benefits of backyard poultry farming. For participating in the project, priority was given to vulnerable households, particularly landless families, households with limited livelihood opportunities, widowed women, families without electricity, and BPL card holders. Local Self Help Groups (SHGs) extended support in mobilising communities, identification and selection of vulnerable households and encouraged women to participate in the backyard poultry programme.
The selected women members were oriented on poultry shed preparation and basic management practices. Training was provided on various aspects including hygiene and disease prevention.
Box 1: From Distress Migration to a Sustainable Livelihood Subani Majhi, a tribal woman from Buguda village in Daspalla Block, faced severe livelihood insecurity after losing her husband to liver disease. With three young children to support, she sold 0.4 acres of land and borrowed ₹50,000 from a moneylender to meet medical expenses. With limited livelihood opportunities in the village, she migrated to Bhubaneswar for construction work, but her earnings were largely consumed by debt repayment. Subani participated in a two-day practical training under the backyard poultry programme and received a starter kit. Unfortunately, her first batch of chicks failed, resulting in financial loss and discouragement. Without losing hope, Subani began cultivating Azolla and preparing homemade feed to reduce feeding costs and improve bird nutrition. With continued support and follow-up from the NIRMAN team, she gradually improved her poultry management skills. Encouraged by better results, Subani reinvested her earnings and expanded her enterprise to 24 toolkits, with an investment of ₹14,350 on feed and accessories. She subsequently sold 192 birds for ₹45,120 and continues to retain eggs for household consumption. The poultry enterprise has provided Subani with a home-based source of income and reduced her dependence on seasonal migration. More importantly, her experience with initial failure, adaptation and reinvestment has made her a peer motivator within the community, encouraging other women to adopt backyard poultry as a livelihood option. |
Community participation was ensured right from the beginning, including breed selection. Initially, 3–4 poultry varieties were introduced and tested based on local demand, farmer preference and acceptance, particularly considering the preferences of tribal households. Based on farmers’ response and performance under local conditions, the project has now narrowed the focus to 2–3 preferred varieties, mainly Kuroiler and Sarangi. These birds provide both meat and eggs, improving household access to animal-source protein while also generating marketable products.
Each member was provided with a toolkit which included 10 chicks, 2 kg of feed, and essential medicines. Each participant contributed a nominal amount towards the starter kit creating a sense of ownership for the women.
Technical guidance and vaccination support from Day 1 to Day 56, was provided. Training was primarily field-based, including demonstrations; poultry shed preparation and hands-on management. Continuous hand holding by regular follow-up visits ensured the health of the birds and maintenance of the poultry sheds.
Low-cost sustainable practices
A central feature of the initiative is the effort to reduce the cost of poultry production by making better use of locally available resources. Instead of depending entirely on commercial feed and purchased equipment, women are encouraged to combine improved poultry management with low-cost feed and housing innovations.
Biological feed substitutes like Azolla and Termite Culture are encouraged. Azolla is cultivated in small pits near the homestead. When used along with broken rice, maize, wheat bran, kitchen by-products and other locally available feed resources, Azolla replaces 30% to 40% of commercial feed requirements. The project also promotes termite culture as a locally available protein-rich feed source for growing chicks. These practices help reduce dependence on purchased feed while diversifying the birds' diet.
Locally available bamboo is used to make feeders, drinkers and, in some cases, poultry shelters. In villages where homestead space is limited, farmers have experimented with multi-tier bamboo structures and poultry sheds integrated with fish ponds. Such adaptations are important because the model needs to fit the resources and space available to each household.
Outcomes
For smallholders, the nutritional value of the initiative is immense. Healthy birds provide eggs and meat for family consumption, enhancing the household nutrition.
The economic outcome depends on bird survival, feed costs and local market prices. Farmers primarily sell birds to neighboring households or in village markets or through local traders, with direct sales generally providing better returns than sales through intermediaries. A household managing ten poultry toolkits can generate an estimated net profit of ₹4,000 to ₹5,000 per cycle. The economics of the initiative is presented in Table 1. Beyond nutrition and empowerment, the core driver of change is the hard economic return generated by running multi-cycle poultry micro-enterprises. (Table 2).
For many women, however, the significance of poultry is not limited to the amount earned. The income can be used for household consumption, debt repayment, children's education and meeting emergencies. With continuous engagement with the enterprise resulting in supplemental income, women’s dependence on uncertain daily wage labour and seasonal migration reduced considerably.
Table 1: Financial Breakdown of Local Innovations
Innovation | Commercial / Standard Model | Backyard Poultry | Direct Savings per Household (₹) |
Poultry Feed (Rs/kg) | ₹35–₹40 | ₹12–₹15 (using Azolla + crop waste) | ₹600 – ₹900 per 10-bird cycle |
Feeders & Drinkers (Rs/set) | ₹350 – ₹500 | ₹0 (fabricated with local bamboo) | ₹350 – ₹500 |
Poultry Shed | ₹20,000 – ₹40,000 (tin/wire mesh) | ₹15,000 – ₹20,000 (bamboo + threshed straw) | ₹5,000 – ₹20,000 upfront |
Table 2: Comparative Economics: Single Unit vs. Scaled Enterprise
Indicator | Starter Unit (10 Birds / 1 Cycle) | Scaled Unit (100–200 Birds / Multi-Cycle) |
Total Production Cost | ₹450 – ₹600 | ₹4,500 – ₹7,000 |
Gross Revenue (Sales & Eggs) | ₹1,800 – ₹2,200 | ₹22,000 – ₹38,000 |
Net Income | ₹1,250 – ₹1,600 | ₹17,500 – ₹31,000 |
Primary Economic Use | Household nutrition, emergency cash | Loan repayment, asset creation, education |
Challenges on the ground
The project has faced several practical challenges. Market access was one of the key constraints in remote villages, Poor producers in remote areas faced predatory pricing from paikars, the local middlemen. where individual women selling only a few birds had limited bargaining power with traders. Individual women selling 2–3 birds at a time often received 15%–20% below the local market rate.
Disease management was another recurring concern, particularly during vulnerable stages of bird growth. Newcastle Disease (Ranikhet) and Fowl Pox remain serious threats. Maintaining last-mile vaccine cold-chains in off-grid forest villages requires constant coordination with local livestock extension workers.
During peak summer months (April–June), when temperatures exceed 42°C and water sources dry up, maintaining Azolla pits became difficult. Dedicated shade management and water conservation techniques are needed to address this issue.
These challenges were addressed to an extent by regular technical support, timely vaccination, enhancing access to local markets and low-cost feed solutions
Conclusion
The experience from forest-fringe Odisha shows that for vulnerable women, a small poultry unit can become a starting point for rebuilding productive assets, generating regular cash income, enhancing household nutrition and reducing dependence on debt and migration. Owing to the strength of its participatory approach which combined low cost local solutions, by 2026, the programme upscaled to benefit around 1150 vulnerable households across 91 villages.
For many participating women, backyard poultry is more than an additional activity. It represents a livelihood that can be developed at home, around available resources and within the realities of everyday life. In that sense, the small wings of a backyard poultry enterprise can help households take an important step towards greater security and resilience.
Siddharth Kumar Rout
NIRMAN, Daspalla Block (Nayagarh District) & Barkote Block (Deogarh District), Odisha Siddharth.rout@nirmanodisha.org
LEISA India September 2026
