PRESENT STATUS OF FREE-RANGE DUCK FARMING SYSTEM OF TULSIPUR DANG, NEPAL

Babi Basnet, Sita Bhattarai, Akash Kandel, Pooja Sharma, Prakash Khana

DOI: 10.26480/bda.02.2021.65.67

ABSTRACT
The survey was conducted in Malwar and Kwangi villages of Tulsipur sub-metropolitan city of Dang district to study the present status of the free-range duck farming system. The data were collected from 50 farmers of each village by interviewing the close-ended questionnaire. The majority of the farmers (74%) reared both duck and chicken while the remaining farmers reared duck only. About 40% of the farmers used maize as feeding materials. The percentage of farmers keeping ducks in their living house and not using any bedding materials was 50 and 32 respectively. The average sexual maturity days, adult weight, egg production, and egg weight were 189.83 days, 1.99 kg, 104.91 and 60.95 g, respectively. Most of the farmers (61%) reported no disease problem but sometimes duck cholera was a major problem. Out of total farmers, about 98% did not vaccinate and 82% did not provide vitamin and mineral supplements. The average mortality rate was 14.64% per year. Thus, it can be concluded that the rearing method of duck is traditional and lack of appropriate housing and inadequate supply of vaccines, medicines, vitamins and minerals are the major problems. Programs related to training and budget should be introduced to overcome these problems.

KEYWORDS
Duck; free-range; mortality; maturity; production