Rain-fed agriculture has traditionally been the core of livelihoods for poor families in rural Jharkhand, supplemented in varying degrees by small livestock rearing, handicrafts, wages and hunting and gathering. Improving agricultural productivity and more generally the productivity of primary rural resources is, therefore, essential to enhance rural livelihoods. Agriculture, however, has inherent limits as a livelihood for land-less people and marginal farmers; it offers only fragile livelihoods to farmers in agro-ecologically marginal or vulnerable regions; further declining farm sizes due to population growth further limits the livelihood potential of agriculture. Thus, beyond increasing agriculture productivity, the challenge therefore is to develop livelihood opportunities based on rural enterprises that do not depend on land, supplement agricultural income, offset its uncertainty and exploit the growing demand for new products, especially in urban centers.

By 2020 it is estimated that poultry would account for the largest portion of the livestock output, which would be more than 50 % of the total global agricultural output in financial terms. In India also livestock accounted for about 32 % of the total value of agricultural output with poultry contributing a major share. While the production of agricultural crops has been rising at a rate of 1.5-2 % per annum that of eggs and broilers has been rising at a rate of 8-10 % per annum. The increasing demand for livestock (protein) products is driven by sustained economic growth and rising incomes. In addition, the income elasticity of demand for meat products is high. Meat consumption has increased by over 80% between 1983 and 2000. The greatest increases (in percentage terms) have occurred in poultry. In 1981, the production of poultry meat was 0.12 million tons which at present is 2.2 million tons. The per capita consumption of poultry meat in 1970 was 146 gm and at present it is 1.6 kilogram.

The best practice in the poultry industry is large scale poultry farming, supported by backward and forward linkages which include the necessary vertical integration such as parent farm, hatchery etc. It reduces the cost of production and production at a large scale helps to establish monopoly in the market for better price realization. The federation is planning on a parent unit for supply of eggs to the two hatcheries. This would further reduce the cost of production as well as ensure quality check on the eggs vital for good quality of chicks.

The forward linkage as collective marketing which was restricted to wholesaling is taking a step further to branding and retailing. The product has been branded as “Fresco Chicken”, for the identification of the product in the market. The retailing is in the initial pilot stage, focusing on hawker system for retailing, with customized and home delivery services to the consumers for the promotion of the brand. The next stage includes opening retail counters for the brand. This will bring a complete new phase for the Federation, giving larger benefits to the small producers and an identity in the market.

The mission of the organization is to develop livelihood opportunities based on rural enterprises that do not depend on land, supplement agricultural income, offset its uncertainty and exploit the growing demand for new products, especially in urban centers. The vision of the organisation is to provide a sustainable livelihood for the rural women. With women belonging to resource poor families with low risk taking ability, the short term objective is to try out the idea of small scale poultry units with each producer rearing not more than 500 poultry birds per cycle. The long term goal of the initiative lies in the standardization of the Small Holder model of Poultry Units that offers enormous scope for further expansion of the activity to benefit large number of poor rural women in Jharkhand.

The vision of the organisation is to provide a sustainable livelihood to the rural women.