Poultry farming is the process of raising domesticated birds such as chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese for the purpose of farming meat or eggs for food. Poultry are farmed in great numbers with chickens being the most numerous.
Poultry farming is done commercially for two purposes, viz. meat(broiler farming) and eggs(layer farming) since they both are high source of proteins, vitamins and other minerals necessary for a balanced human diet. Layer poultry is rearing of birds commercially for egg laying purposes. Globally China ranks highest in egg production with 24.8 billion kilograms in shell followed by US producing 5.6 billion kilograms. India ranks third in the world by producing 3.8 billion kilograms in shell. Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Maharashtra and Punjab are the leading egg producing states in India in the same order. There is a rise in egg production in India owing to the growth in human consumption and lower production costs.