Scenario of poultry farming in high altitude region of India

Abstract

During the last three decades, India has reached a level of self-sufficiency in chicken production, and the poultry industry has become more sophisticated, but the situation in the cold arid Himalayan part in India remains challenging. The main reasons for this condition are the non-existence of any commercial breeds or hatcheries, problems transporting day old chicks, poor availability of poultry feed ingredients and the fact that the majority of the population are Buddhist, and consequently largely vegetarian and generally avoid killing animals. There are varied climatic and topographic features are shows in the north western part of the Himalayan region of India. This area exhibits an extremely cold and dry climate for most of the year which hinders the growth and productivity of biomass. Vegetation cover is therefore very rare in these areas with the temperature falling to-30°C during winter and the altitude varies from 2000 to 3658 m from mean sea level (MSL). This type of cold, arid, desert-like conditions are not suited for natural habitat of poultry birds. At sea level, the oxygen concentration, barometric pressure, humidity and temperature should be 21%, 740 mm Hg, 65% and 99.8°F, respectively, however, in this cold desert area O2 concentration is 30% lower than at mean sea level, barometric pressure is only 510 mm Hg, humidity is less than 30% and temperature ranges from-30°C to +30°C. The objective of this review article is briefly described the problems, their solutions and opportunities for successful poultry farming in the high altitude cold arid region of India.