**2. Feed system and poultry production**

The poultry sector, historically, has passed through a system of evolution with three distinct phases: (i) traditional system of poultry production at home to meet the domestic need, (ii) semicommercial poultry production system, and (iii) industrialscale production. Every system operates within a basic technological framework. The factors that set one production system apart from another are bird selection, husbandry, and feed systems. Depending on the approach implemented, different amounts of food, nutrition, and resources are needed to grow poultry.

### **2.1 Strategies in traditional systems**

Most developing countries still raise poultry using traditional methods. The local birds raised in this system might be fed on household wastes, environmental materials (arthropods, mollusks, greens, seeds, etc.), agricultural residues, feedstuffs, and aquatic plants, as well as byproducts from nearby small industrial units. The struggle for feed resources in villages determines the survival and expansion of extensive poultry systems.

### **2.2 Feeding strategies in semicommercial system**

Small- to medium-sized flocks of native or enhanced genotype birds and the purchase of at least half of the feed from industrial compounders define the semicommercial poultry system. The feeding methods utilized in this approach include dilution of purchased feed with local feed, total mixing of local feed with commercial feed, and complete ration mixing on the farm.

### **2.3 Feeding strategies in the commercial system**

Commercial production is dominated by developed nations, and it has recently become more prevalent in developing nations as well. This system makes use of vertically integrated production units and birds that have undergone genetic analysis. Feed is the core element of such a system, accounting for more than 60% of the costs of production. Productivity in such a system is reliant on the availability of a highly effective feeding system and the usage of nutritionally balanced and designed feed to meet the needs of the birds.
