Assessment of Chicken Production and Productive Performance in Pawe District, Beneshangul Gumuz Regional State, Ethiopia

Dejene Teshome Biratu

doi:10.11648/j.ajmse.20210601.11

Abstract

The study was conducted with the overall objective to assess of chicken production systems and identify the productivity performance related to chicken production under village/traditional production system in pawe district of Beneshangul Gumuz Regional State, Ethiopia. A total of 80 respondents were purposively selected from four purposively selected kebeles in the study areas based on the accessibility and the potential in chicken production. All the collected data were analyzed using SPSS version of 20. Results of the study revealed that the average flock size of local chickens was (13.8 ± 0.20) per household in the study areas. The average age at first egg laying for the local chickens was (6.18 ± 0.024 month). The survey indicated that the average egg production of the local chicken breeds was (60 ± 0.123 eggs per hen per year). The study also revealed that the average number of eggs set for brooding/incubation was 10.65 ± 0.03 per hen, from which relatively fair percentage of chicks (81.50%) was hatched from local chickens. High proportion of chicken mortality up to age of 8 weeks was reported which might indicate high prevalence of chickens diseases and predators. The study revealed that majority of the respondents practice traditional scavenging system of chicken production. The major diseases of chicken in the study areas were New castle disease, Fowl typhoid, Infectious bronchitis, Gumboro and Marek’s diseases in order of their importance. Thus, the major constraints related to poultry production should be alleviated to scale out through improve overall management chicken with the distribution of improved chicken breeds for producers to better the productivity of chickens in the study areas.

Highlights

In Ethiopia chickens are the most widespread and almost every rural family owns chickens, which provide a valuable source of family protein and income [28]
Rural poultry in Ethiopia represents a significant part of the national economy in general and the rural economy in particular and contributes 98.5% and 99.2% of the national egg and chicken meat production, respectively [1, 11]
The study was conducted at Pawe district found in Metekel administrative zone of Beneshangul Gumuz Regional state (BGRS), located at 110 09’N latitude and 360 03 ́ E longitudes in the North-Western part of the country

Summary

Introduction

In Ethiopia chickens are the most widespread and almost every rural family owns chickens, which provide a valuable source of family protein and income [28]. Rural poultry in Ethiopia represents a significant part of the national economy in general and the rural economy in particular and contributes 98.5% and 99.2% of the national egg and chicken meat production, respectively [1, 11]. About 99% of chicken owners of North- eastern Ethiopia provided supplementary feed to village birds once per day, mainly during feed shortage seasons [9]. The greater part of the feed for village birds is obtained through scavenging, which includes; the household cooking waste, cereal and cereal by-products, roots and tubers, oilseeds, trees, shrubs, fruits and animal proteins [26]. The amount & availability of scavenging feed resource base (SFRB) per bird are significantly dependent on season, household grain availability, the time of grain sowing and harvesting and household flock size [24]

Objectives

Methods

Results