The Peculiar Characteristics of the Marketing System of Indigenous Village Chickens

Abstract

For smallholder farmers, indigenous village chickens (IVCs) serve as a source of food, income, and ritual items. In practice, there is a high demand for IVC products, and when this demand is coupled with low investment in production inputs, it makes IVC production a rewarding rural business. Regardless of a lot of complaints about its efficacy, the marketing system of IVCs remains a viable transaction method and perfectly matches the extensive production system. This study documented the marketing system of IVCs operating in smallholder settings using a cross-sectional study. There is high volatility in the demand for IVC products, which is attributable to the demographic structure of the community and the weak purchasing power of consumers. The market price of live birds is fixed in line with the specifics of the multifaceted demand of the local community. Agroecology significantly affects the age at which the birds reach marketable size (t = 3.508, df = 113, p = 0.001, 95% CI -1.9359 to -0.5384). There is an inclined tendency to sell live birds rather than eggs (x-squared = 46.512, df = 1, p-value = 9.104e-12) and most of the home-hatched birds are sold out. Due to the involvement of hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers that are living in rural areas, millions of actors are needed to execute the market transaction, which significantly reduces the income accrued by smallholder farmers and the utility of consumers.