After primary research in Charbardi village under Bagli tehsil of Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh, it was found that every family in the village is of marginal farmers. A small part of their land is focused only on the production of crops {wheat, maize, soybean, etc.} along with old method animal husbandry. There is a lot of shortage in the food of the cattle, they are fed only dry fodder, green fodder is the additional income. Apart from this, agriculture is based on labor and where production is not sufficient despite hard work.

Migration is an issue across the region, people are migrating to cities in search of employment. Where they are deprived of the entire rural livelihood system. There is a need for development programmes which are basic and essential for rural livelihoods. There is a need to create an alternative source of income for the people, where people can base their livelihood in the village itself. As a pilot intervention under the SBI Fellowship Programme, I am trying to create a sustainable source of livelihood by improving livestock rearing. 

I designed a 10×7 square foot combined chicken and goat shed, which is a two-story house. In this, the upper floor is for goats and the lower floor is for chickens, in this, native poultry and goats will be reared together. The goat's feces and urine will fall down and produce insects, which will be used as chicken feed. After this the chicken and goat litter and urine waste will be used as organic fertilizer in crops and Napier grass field, then Napier grass will be used as green fodder for goat. This practice creates an ecological chain of biodiversity, increasing the efficiency of both livestock farming and crop cultivation through the beneficial use of animal and feed wastes.

Result of the project:-

I have built three combined poultry and goat sheds so far with the financial support of SBI Foundation. After completing my pilot intervention, three youths of the village were also inspired to start a combined poultry and goat shed along with their other agricultural activities. Interestingly, two of the three youths left their private jobs in the city and came to the village. They are inspired by my work in Charbad village, they have already started building sheds with the help of their locally available materials. The main objective is to teach them the use of waste and promote local traditional knowledge and local materials. The combined goat and poultry shed is an eco-friendly home building inspired by the traditional flood resistant architecture of my community, the Mising tribe of Assam, called “Kare Okum” in Mising language and “Chang Ghar” in Assamese. 

It is an innovative architectural design to maintain the flow of flood water from below as it is a two-storey raised platform supported by bamboo pillars. The lower portion is not used as housing in the flood prone area of Assam. Here, we have used the lower floor as a mug shed. I am from a marginalized community of Assam, I have come to Madhya Pradesh {Samaj Pragati Sahayog} as SBI Youth for India Fellow.