Role of backyard poultry in South-East Asian countries: post COVID-19 perspective

The potential growth of the poultry industry was halted globally during COVID-19 although poultry birds were not affected directly by the virus. Distress in the poultry industry during the pandemic is primarily due to restriction of movement imposed on various items such as poultry feed, chicks, medicine and vaccines, and poultry products both locally and globally particularly in Asia, where 10 countries executed national lockdowns and 12 countries employed localised lockdowns. Rumours about spreading of SARS-CoV-2 virus through poultry meat caused further collapse in the domestic market economy. The export market of poultry products has declined in certain regions like Asia, Europe and North America. It is expected that worldwide chicken meat trade may be lowered by 4% although there is increased demand for animal protein among consumers. Hence, an integrated approach is needed to revive the poultry industry. Apart from commercial poultry maintained in integrated farming systems with moderate to high level of biosecurity, there is a 'backyard' or 'village level' poultry sector with minimal biosecurity. In the backyard sector, native birds or locally available breeds are maintained and the birds or their products are mostly consumed locally. The strategy to adapt backyard poultry as an alternative system to generate income not only augments poultry production but also guarantees the availability of animal protein to the poorer section of the society, as well as improving the purchasing capacity of this section, and guards against the 'reverse migration' of labour during the post-COVID-19 period. Furthermore, smallholders could play a vital role in fulfilling the demand for animal products in developing countries. Some initiatives to distribute chicks, feed and medicine for rearing among the marginal farmers were detected in India, Bangladesh and Cambodia during lockdown to mitigate the catastrophic effect of COVID-19 on the rural economy.