400 newly hatched Vanaraja chicks found their new home at Salma’s poultry farm at Tyrshang village falling under West Jaintia Hills District in Meghalaya along with 200 broiler chicks. These chicks will be kept in a constructed shed with proper feed and room to grow.

The Vanaraja Chicken are reared for both eggs and meat. The variety is in great demand due to its taste, leanness, flavour and suitability in the rural setup of Tyrshang village in Meghalaya. These birds can produce 150-200 eggs in a year and 1.3-1.5 kg body weight at 10 to 14 weeks of age. Commercially, it has a much larger advantage then the local broiler variety.

After completing her bachelors from St. Edmund College Shillong, Salma Pyngrope was unemployed for months. After several fruitless job hunts, she was struggling to take her future to the next level. She has always dreamt of starting her own business but was confused to pursue her passion.

She had decided to volunteer for Caritas India through Jaintia Hills Development Society (JHDS), a FARM Northeast programme partner in Jowai.  Her village was one of the FARM Northeast programme villages, where JHDS empowers community action for the socio-economic self-reliance. In this regard, she participated in many capacity building and livelihood promotion programs. In January 2020, she got the opportunity to participate in 15 days training on Poultry Management organised by KVK Jowai held at JHDS Training Hall Bishop’s House Jowai.

This was a stepping stone for her to live her dream and start her first business of poultry farming. She started with rearing 100 one-month-old chicks for meat purpose. She managed to invest Rs. 55000/- including the construction of Shed, procurement of day-old chicken and feeds. In this first attempt, she earned a profit of Rs. 25000 after deducting all the input cost. This has encouraged her to extend her business by investing more not only for meat purpose but also for breeding purpose.

Salma invested Rs 26000 on Vanaraja chicks and within 25 days, she gained a profit of Rs. 18000 after deducting all the investment. Now, Salma has purchased the next batch of another 700 vanaraja chicks and 200 broiler chicks to get maximum return from her investment.

Seeing the success of this intervention, JHDS planned to replicate this example to the new project villages under FARM-III. Here, the organisation not only targeted individuals but also groups to leverage the benefit. In June 2020, JHDS has distributed 217 Vanaraja variety to 2 SHGs and 5 individual farmers of 3 villages to promote livelihood options for the villagers and bring self-reliance.