India, Nov. 25 -- India's backyard poultry population, including rural poultry, saw a 46 per cent growth from 2012, even though it accounted for just about a third of the total poultry population in India at that time, according to the 2019 livestock census. The remaining two-thirds were from commercial poultry systems.

In 2023-2024, only 15.4 per cent of total eggs came from backyard poultry. It is evident that despite the potential to grow, much of the poultry products came from commercial poultry production systems.

These systems, however, are unsustainable owing to high stocking density of productivity-centric breeds. Poultry in these settings are reared in confined conditions with limited animal husbandry, making them potential bre...