Abstract
Development of village chicken production can be a sustainable way of helping to meet the welfare needs of rural populations and raise their living standards. There is a dearth of information on research conducted to characterize, understand and develop the village chicken production systems in Zimbabwe. This review focuses on constraints, opportunities and research needs for the improvement of village chicken productivity in Zimbabwe. Village chicken production in Zimbabwe is extensive and dominated by indigenous chickens that exhibit remarkable adaptation to local environments. The multitude functions of village chickens, which include the provision of high quality protein meat and eggs, cash through sales and socio-cultural roles, are discussed in detail. Human gender aspects in village chicken production are highlighted. The factors that hamper village chicken productivity are reviewed together with opportunities and research needs. The major constraints include shortage of feed, poor health and housing management. Any improvements in these constraints may lead to sustainable increase in village chicken productivity.
Highlights
Zimbabwe like in most developing countries is twodimensional; large-scale and smallholder (Faranisi, 1995).Agriculture plays a very important role in the economy Large-scale production is characterised by intensive of Zimbabwe, providing income for about 75 percent of the management, mechanization and specialization, and is population and contributing over 40 percent of national dominated by few large companies which are both breeders earnings from exports (Faranisi, 1995)
This review focuses on constraints and opportunities for improving village chicken production in Zimbabwe
There are various advantages which make village chickens attractive in the context of poverty alleviation and quality protein supply in Zimbabwe than cattle, sheep, goats and pigs: village chickens in one form or another are kept in most areas and there are hardly any religious or social taboos associated with them (Pedersen, 2002)
Summary
Zimbabwe like in most developing countries is twodimensional; large-scale and smallholder (Faranisi, 1995). Agriculture plays a very important role in the economy Large-scale production is characterised by intensive of Zimbabwe, providing income for about 75 percent of the management, mechanization and specialization, and is population and contributing over 40 percent of national dominated by few large companies which are both breeders earnings from exports (Faranisi, 1995). Over 70% of the poultry products and 20% of animal harsh environmental stresses prevalent in most rural areas protein intake in most African countries come from rural (Faranisi, 1995) their contribution to rural economies is low poultry sector (Kitalyi, 1998). This review focuses on constraints and opportunities for improving village chicken production in Zimbabwe
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