In India, the contribution of ducks for egg and meat production is next to chicken. There are many advantagesof duck production over chicken. The important available ducks in the country are few exotic breeds and locallyavailable indigenous ducks. Ducks can be reared under intensive, semi-intensive and extensive rearing system.However, in India, ducks are mostly reared in small flock size as subsidiary source of income. The major duck basedintegrated farming system are duck-fish, duck-rice and duck-rice-fish integrated farming system. Feed is the majorfactor in livestock and poultry production system as it accounts about 70-75% of the total cost of production. Tominimize the cost of production, many locally available alternate or unconventional feed ingredients, viz. azolla,cassava, broken rice are used for feeding of ducks. The constraints of duck farming are mainly the unavailability ofsuitable germplasm, scarcity in natural feed resources, drying of natural water bodies, difficulty in the availabilityof vaccines, poor marketing facilities, etc. In India, there is ample scope for duck production to meet egg and meatdemand of the country. Suitable duck breeds or varieties need to be developed for rural backyard duck farming.Comprehensive feeding packages along with scientific management practices for different types of ducks should beformulated for economic production of duck eggs and meat. There is a need for establishment of hatcheries and other infrastructures in rural areas to promote duck farming for sustainable livelihood of the people.

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A study was conducted in the tropical coastal region of Odisha in 2019 to find out the effect of replacing wheat with broken rice (BR) on nutrients metabolisability, egg production and quality in White Pekin ducks. White Pekin ducks (45, 165 days) were divided into three groups with three replicates in each group and each replicate had five ducks. Three experimental diets without (BR-0) and with BR, replacing 50 (BR-50) and 100 (BR-100), per cent wheat were prepared. The above diets were offered randomly to the groups till 40 weeks followed by conduction of a metabolic trial. The dry matter intake (g/d) was similar among the groups. The metabolisability percentage of dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, ether extract and crude fibre in BR-0 and BR-50 were similar and higher than BR-100. There was no significant difference in N balance (g/d) among the groups. The total egg production, duck day egg production percentage and feed conversion ratio were similar among the groups. The external and internal egg quality parameters were similar among the groups as well. It was concluded that wheat can be replaced with broken rice at 50% level in the diets of White Pekin ducks during first phase of laying under intensive rearing system with increase in the metabolisability of the nutrients of the feed without affecting the performance.