Abstract

A review was undertaken to obtain the related research results and facts on production, husbandry and sustainability of free-range poultry production systems in Ethiopia with the aim of delivering synthesized and summarized information to the beneficiaries. Poultry production has a major role in poverty alleviation by means of income generation and household food security. Free-range chicken production is characterized by low input and output scavenging, with minimal investment in housing, feeding, watering and health care, and hence weak biosecurity, high off take rates and high mortality rates. The production system in Ethiopia is extensive and dominated by indigenous chickens that exhibit remarkable adaptation to local environments. Generally, it is concluded that, the free-range chicken production system offers many people the opportunity to improve their livelihoods, suggesting that improvement of chicken breeding, production environment, farmers’ access to inputs and markets needs to focus on the free-range chicken production system.

Highlights

  • Livestock production in general and chickens in particular play important socioeconomic roles in developing countries (Alders, 2004; Salam, 2005)

  • Huque and Paul (2001) reported that chicken production systems of Bangladesh depend mainly on locally scavenging chickens that were reared in villages and they constituted more than 70% of the country's chicken population

  • Poultry production in Ethiopia can be characterized into three major production systems, namely the large-scale commercial, the small scale commercial and the village or free-range poultry production system

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Summary

Introduction

Livestock production in general and chickens in particular play important socioeconomic roles in developing countries (Alders, 2004; Salam, 2005). Related reports which focus on housing, flock size, village chicken production, management, feeding and watering practices were reviewed. Abubakar et al (2007) reported that women and children involvement was by far the highest on village flocks management labor profile activities included; sheltering birds, cleaning bird’s house, feeding and watering of birds in some parts of Nigeria and Cameroon. Mapiye et al (2005) reported that women in Zimbabwe were dominated in most village chicken production activities like; feeding (37.7%), watering (51.2%) and cleaning of bird’s house (37.2%) whereas men were dominant in shelter constructions (60%) and treatment of birds (40%). Utilization of the exotic resources needs to be rationalized so that distribution of exotic chickens is limited to commercial farms and villages with adequate access to production inputs, such as compound feeds, and close to markets that are generally located around urban areas (Dessie et al, 2013). Controls for this persistent disease problem need to be addressed (Dessie et al, 2013)

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Chicken Constraints and Traditional Management
Findings
Chicken Production and Utilization System in Mid Rift
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