Vol. 7, Issue 9, Part B (2025)

The study was carried out in four villages of Rahuri tehsil, Ahilyanagar district of Maharashtra under the ICAR Farmer FIRST Programme implemented by MPKV, Rahuri. Using an ex-post-facto research design, data were collected from 200 purposively selected rural women entrepreneurs engaged in backyard poultry farming through personal interviews with a structured schedule. The findings revealed that women faced multiple challenges in poultry management, including predator attacks, seasonal fluctuations in egg prices, high feed costs, labor constraints, market instability, chick mortality, cannibalistic behavior, crop damage, disease outbreaks and theft. To overcome these issues, respondents suggested practical interventions such as government support for predator-proof housing, provision of healthy chicks at affordable rates, promotion of alternative feed resources and reliable electricity supply to reduce stress-related behavior in birds. Other recommendations included the adoption of low-cost automatic feeders and waterers to ease management and the establishment of poultry houses at the taluka level for assured markets. Overall, the study emphasizes the importance of predator control, disease prevention, feeding innovations and market infrastructure as critical interventions to strengthen backyard poultry as a sustainable livelihood option for rural women.