Chickens have been part of rural backyards long before poultry became an industry. Poultry corporate Keggfarms has returned to these very backyards as part of its rural poultry programme.

The idea was to keep the benefits of poultry within the countryside while making it more profitable for the housewives who rear the chickens. This was achieved by genetically breeding high-yielding chickens, called kuroilers, and supplying them to the village women.

Vinod Kapur, the 72-year-old founder of Keggfarms, says his firm’s experiment with rural poultry is now nearing a decade and despite the losses incurred during the bird flu scare, he has no regrets.

His work has been recognised by Harvard Business School as a development model and the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the National Dairy Development Board are documenting the Keggfarms model as one for sustainable rural development.

Source: Business Standard