Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2020) 9(1): 1395-1404 1395 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2020.901.154 Socio-economic Condition of Khadia Poultry Farmers and Phenotypic Characteristics of Khadia Chickenof Northern Odisha, India G. D. Nayak 1 , K. K. Sardar 2 and B. C. Das 3* 1 Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, 2 Pharmacology & Toxicology, 3 Veterinary& Animal Husbandry Extension, College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Odisha University of Agriculture & Technology (OUAT), Bhubaneswar-751003, Odisha, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction India has 72.22 per cent of its population living in rural areas and 89 per cent rural livestock householder’s rear native poultry as an important supplementary source of cash income (Khandait et al., 2011).Poultry production in India evolved from back yard venture to full-fledged poultry industry in last three decades (Reddy et al., 2015) Poultry plays an important role in human nutrition, national income, employment, and income generation in India. Meat and egg from native chicken is preferred by people because of its taste, leanness and pigmentation (Nigussie et al., 2015). Native chicken arebest known for International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 9 Number 1 (2020) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com The present study was undertaken to study thesocio-economic status of Khadia Chicken rearers along with phenotypic characteristics Khadia Chicken in two tribal districts of Northern Odisha. The sample size constituted two hundred households rearing 1435 Khadia chicken. The study revealed that 72.5 % of the poultry rearers earned Rs.20,000 per year which is a substantial amount to support their livelihood. The qualitative characteristics like plumage colour, shank colour, skin colour, wattle type, comb type and fighting characteristics are quite distinct than the other native chicken of Odisha. The quantitative characteristics such as annual egg production, egg weight, fertility, body weight, mortality, shank length and keel length are different from the registered native breed of Odisha-Hansli. The results showed that annual egg production of Khadia native chicken averaged to 70.7 ± 1.26 and fertility was found 80.41 ± 1.38 %. The male adult body weight was 1839.5 ± 22.274 g and adult female weight 1388.75±10.96 g. The shank length in male is 1.12 ± 0.22 cm whereas the females shank length 9.78 ± 0.24 cm. These research-outcomes may serve as baseline information for the academicians, researchers and breeders for chalking out future breeding strategy for improvement of native chicken. Keywords Khadia, Socio- economic, Phenotypic, Tribal, Native chicken Accepted: 15 December 2019 Available Online: 20 January 2020 Article Info