Indigenous Chicken Farmers Research Articles

Intention to adopt improved indigenous chicken breeds among smallholder farmers in Machakos county, Kenya. Do socio-psychological factors matter?

Consumption of poultry meat, eggs, and other animal-sourced commodities has dramatically risen by almost 86 %, with the demand of indigenous chicken products almost doubling over the past few decades. In Kenya, poultry farmers prefer indigenous chicken (IC) due to their resilience to harsh climatic conditions, high feed conversion rates, delicious end products, ability to scavenge and potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions among other factors. Despite the high demand for poultry and its products, the gap between demand and production remains high. Poultry farmers try to keep pace with the demand by integrating the recommended improved IC breeds into their production system. Although there exists some understanding on the determinants of the farmers to adopt improved IC, still there is scanty information on how socio-psychological factors influence the intention to adoption improved IC among the farmers in Kenya. Thus, this study sought to investigate the determinants of intention to adopt improved IC while specially focusing on the role of socio-psychological factors. A total of 374 IC farmers in Machakos county were selected using a multistage sampling technique. Partial Least Square - Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to analyze the data. Results from descriptive statistics showed that approximately 90 % of IC farmers in the study area were aware of the improved indigenous chicken breeds. However, the adoption of the improved IC was below average (44.9 %). The path analysis results revealed that Subjective Norm (SN) was the main determinant of farmer's intention to adopt improved IC breeds, followed by Attitude (ATT) and Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC). The study recommends more emphasis to be given to psycho-social issues through well designed public and private interventions that will promote adoption of improved breeds among IC farmers.

Breeding Practices and Trait Preferences of Indigenous Chicken Farmers at Madiga Village, Polokwane Local Municipality, South Africa

Background: Understanding of breeding practices and traits preferences of the communal farmers is the bottom-up approach where livestock specialists assist farmers to identify and understand their production challenges before designing an improvement program. This study was conducted to identify the socio-economic status, breeding practices, production systems and trait preferences of chicken keepers at Madiga village, Limpopo province. Methods: A total of 38 chicken farmers out of 62 were administered a well-structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square test were used to analyse and test the significance among the gender respectively. Result: The results showed that the breeding practices were not significantly affected by gender (p greater than 0.05). Almost all the farmers in Madiga village were keeping indigenous breeds. The results indicated that the majority of the farmers were improving their indigenous chickens mainly by pure breeding. The most common trait preferences of farmers in breeding cocks were body size, mating ability and growth rate while in breeding hens they were mothering ability, hatchability and growth rate. This study indicated that pure breeding, culling and both controlled and uncontrolled mating system were the most common breeding practices in Madiga village. This study might help to attract animal scientists to develop a multipurpose chicken breed that will express the traits preferred by farmers under village production environment and promote chicken production and food security as a result.

Determinants of the risk attitude of indigenous chicken farmers and the effect of risk attitude on indigenous chicken productivity in Kenya

Determinants of the risk attitude of indigenous chicken farmers and the effect of risk attitude on indigenous chicken productivity in Kenya

English

The study was conducted in 225 indigenous chicken keeping households between August 2020 and July 2021 in Machakos and Busia Counties. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data on socio-economic factors, flock characteristics and management practices from targeted households. Overall, majority of respondents were male (82%) with formal education (87%). Agriculture was the main source of income for most households (71%). One third of the households accessed extension services (26%), market information (31%) and credit (33%). The extensive system of production was predominant (66%) with an average chicken flock size of 28 birds characterized by low chick survival rate (33%). There was selective adoption of management interventions, with 76% of households adopting feed supplementation and half (55%) adopted improved chicken housing. Lesser proportion of households practiced improved chick rearing (32%) and vaccinated their chicken (30%). Access to credit and literacy increased adoption of the management interventions (p<0.05). Adoption of management interventions such as improved chick rearing and housing increased chick survival and average chicken flock size significantly (p>0.05). The findings point to necessary targeted efforts such as improving farmer access to credit and provision of specifically packaged extension messages to meet needs of indigenous chicken farmers. Key words: Indigenous chicken, management interventions, adoption, socioeconomic factors.

Household Baseline Survey on Indigenous Chicken Production Characteristics and Constraints in Busia and Machakos Counties of Kenya

Aims: To collect preliminary baseline data prior to validation of three climate-smart technologies.
 Study Design: A structured questionnaire was employed with participation of actors along the Indigenous Chicken value chain.
 Place and Duration of Study: Study was conducted from May 2019 to June 2020 within four (4) Sub-Counties in Busia and Machakos where high Indigenous Chicken populations are found.
 Methodology: A total of 160 households were surveyed. Targeted household information was recorded viz: distribution of respondents by village in the Counties; farmer socio-economic factors; flock structure and characteristics; disease and parasite constraints, management practices; disease reporting and communication amongst recruited farmers.
 Results: Results revealed that 56.5% of the respondents were male and 43.5% were female wit mean age of 50 years. Most farmers had formal education (97%) and practiced semi extensive poultry farming system (59%). Both indigenous and exotic chicken (62%) were kept for income purposes (82.6%) and only young chicks received feed supplements (55.8%). Newcastle (18.5%) and coccidiosis (16.4%) comprised the two major disease constraints reported. Prevalent bird disease symptoms were diarrhea (24.9%) and coughing (23.1%) while mites (27.9%) and fleas (22.3%) dominated the ecto-parasites. Disease control strategies comprised: vaccines (72.8%), dewormers (44.9%) and ethno-veterinary medicine. Aloe secundiflora and Aloe feroxin, were singled out as locally available and effective means of treating diarrhea (62.9%), respiratory infections (61.9%) and worm control (64.5%). Most Indigenous Chicken farmers (76.8%) failed to report illnesses among their flock and did not access to health services (72.1%). Farmers accessed health information through radio (26.5%) as opposed to mobile phones (1.65%).
 Conclusion: Findings of this survey reveal a low-grade free-range poultry system characterized by poor disease control. This scenario calls for targeted efforts by both government and private stakeholders to improve Indigenous Chicken management and help farmers adopt alternative climatic smart disease control interventions.

Impact Assessment of Indigenous Chickens Production Interventions in the Semi-arid Regions of Zimbabwe: Case of Chivi District

Most communal farmers in Chivi district of Zimbabwe rear indigenous chickens. However, the impact of interventions by government and non-government partners remains unknown. The purpose of this study is to assess impact of indigenous chicken production in semi-arid areas with a focus on Chivi district. The research focused on indigenous chickens as the enterprise has the potential to increase rural population income and in turn improve the nutrition for the rural population. A total of 160 indigenous chicken farmers were sampled from a population of 1240 who received past interventions in trainings, feed and chicks or pullets from development partners and government using a survey questionnaire. Variables such as age, farmer experience, education, type of dwelling, maize, cattle, goats, supplementary feed, type of housing, resting of fowl run, vaccinations and type of hatching method were found to be significantly affecting sales rate. Indigenous chicken production was found to be weakly profitable as a positive gross margin was obtained. The study also revealed that value chain actors in indigenous chicken production had no processors. It was concluded that though indigenous chicken production was profitable, the above stated factors affect impact of indigenous chickens. The value chain map had no processors. Capacitating farmers on poultry management and availing credit to finance production and marketing players is important to improve indigenous chickens among smallholder farmers.

A binary logistic analysis on factors affecting the participation of smallholder farmers in the market of indigenous chickens (ICs)

Participation in the market of Indigenous Chickens (ICs) enables farmers an opportunity to generate income and alleviate household food insecurity. The objectives of the study were to profile the socioeconomic characteristics of smallholder farmers and; to determine the factors influencing participation of smallholder farmers in the market of ICs. The study employed purposive and snowball sampling techniques to identify 50 indigenous chicken farmers in Makhuduthamaga Local Municipality, South Africa. Descriptive statistics and Binary Logistic regression model were employed to address the objectives of the study. The results revealed that, most smallholder farmers do not participate in the market of ICs. Moreover, experience in rearing chickens, land size, number of chickens owned, and purpose of rearing the chickens were found as factors influencing participation of farmers in the market of ICs. The study also confirmed that female farmers dominate in the market of ICs when compared to males. This, therefore, calls for government intervention in the promotion of ICs markets to encourage participation by farmers thus improving livelihoods.

Market Contribution of Indigenous Poultry Farmer at Household Level

This study was broadly designed to analyze indigenous poultry market participation in Eravurpattu DS division in Batticaloa district. The study was mainly based on primary data obtained from a sample survey in four G.N Divisions in Eravurpattu DS Division. The simple random sampling technique was used to draw the sample and data were collected through pretested questionnaires. In addition to that, secondary data were also used. Data were analyzed using a statistical software, and descriptive statistics, frequencies and regression were done. Aspects of socioeconomic features of farmers, management practices, productivity of animals and socio economic determinants of poultry market participation decision were studied. Most of the indigenous chicken owners were females and practiced indigenous chicken farming as a part time work. Main purpose of Indigenous chicken rearing was both egg and meat production for 91% of farmers. It was found that high loss of birds due to improper housing/predation and disease attack were the major problems faced by chicken farmers. There is no organized marketing for indigenous chickens and eggs. However, middlemen, households and village shops were involved in the marketing activities. The main marketing channel was producer to consumer (75%) through households. The regression results showed that households' decision to participate in the poultry market was significantly (p<0.05) affected by sex of household head, bicycle ownership, market accessibility and source of market information. Further the results suggest that, establishment of effective market information service will enhance the sales of indigenous chicken farmers.

Knowledge of Technology Poultry Production and Entrepreneurship For Development of Indigenous Chicken Farms in Indonesia

The objective of this study is to analyze the knowledge of technology poultry production and entrepreneurship for the development of indigenous chicken farms. The research location Sidrap and Bone regencies, South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. The data collected through direct observation and structured interviews with 96 indigenous chicken farmers. The data analyzed by descriptive statistics and Spearman's Rank correlation. The results showed that the development of indigenous chicken farms was decreasing and not increasing in the number of chickens, the knowledge of farmer respondents in technology poultry production and entrepreneurship was categorized as inadequate. The results show that in the technology poultry production, knowledge of suitable feed, and control and prevention of disease have a positive and significant relationship with the development of indigenous chicken farms. In entrepreneurial knowledge, knowledge of results-oriented and opportunity-seeking have a positive and significant relationship with the development of indigenous chicken farms. The conclusion, the technology poultry production, and entrepreneurship knowledge have an important role in the development of indigenous chicken farms

Factors influencing marketing channel choices for improved indigenous chicken farmers: insights from Baringo, Kenya

PurposeImproved indigenous chicken is considered a sustainable agricultural practice with social, economic and environmental indicators. Therefore, the analysis of the choice of market channels is of considerable importance to farmers with reference to improved livelihoods and poverty alleviation in developing countries. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that influence market channel choices among improved indigenous chicken farmers in Baringo County and to rank the determinants according to their level of importance in influencing farmer's choice of marketing channels.Design/methodology/approachA multistage sampling technique was employed to collect data from 209 households for the study conducted between April and July 2019, out of which, 198 useful responses were obtained. Multinomial logit regression and neural network models were used to analyze the factors influencing market channel choice based on socioeconomic, demographic and farm characteristics.FindingsIt was established that group membership, education, market distance, transport costs, farm size, cost of information and bargain costs were statistically significant in the choice of market channels (wholesaler, brokers, processors and supermarkets). With the direct consumer as the base market choice. The cost of transport had the highest normalized importance in the prediction of a farmer's selection of market channels for both radial basis function (RBF) and multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural networks. However, flock attributes and age of household head had the least normalized importance in MLP and RBF, respectively.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the insufficiency of resources and time, this study only focused on a small part of the country (Baringo County). However, improved indigenous chicken farming is widely practiced in Kenya. Further studies can be carried out in other counties to validate the results of this study.Practical implicationsThe outcome can be used in policy implementation involving improved indigenous chicken production in Kenya.Originality/valueThis study suggests the methods aimed at enhancing poultry sector in other counties in Kenya as well as other developing countries.

Factors Influencing Smallholder Farmers Participation in Collective Marketing and the Extent of Participation in Improved Indigenous Chicken Markets in Baringo, Kenya

Smallholder farmer collective action not only provides a solution to farmer’s constraints such as lack of market accessibility and inability to take advantage of available market opportunities but also holds the potential to diversify their incomes and increase agricultural productivity translating to enhanced food security and poverty eradication. This research aimed at investigating the role of farmer marketing groups in smallholder market participation using a sample of 198 farmers, sampled from a population of 395 smallholder improved indigenous chicken farmers in Baringo, Kenya, using Probit and Tobit models. The study findings established that farmers' involvement in collective action is predominantly determined by; Education level, household size, distance to extension, cost of transport, and the price per chicken. The extent of participation in improved indigenous chicken markets was positively related to; education level of the household head and farm size while negatively and significantly influenced by off-farm income and the cost of farming. The results of this study provide evidence that farmer collective action has the potential of strengthening market participation among smallholder farmers.

English

Indigenous chicken play an important role in the livelihoods of the rural poor in developing countries. They not only act as a source of nutrition but also supplement household incomes. Despite the tremendous market opportunities available for the farmers, there are still low levels of market participation for indigenous chicken farmers in Gulu district and other parts of Uganda. In light of this, a research study was motivated to ascertain the drivers of smallholder indigenous chicken farmers’ market participation in Gulu district. Using cross-sectional data from households in selected sub counties in Gulu district, a two-stage Heckman model was used to model the decision of the smallholder farmers to participate in the market and then determine the factors affecting the value of sales thereafter. Results from the descriptive statistics showed that there were 126 market participants and 24 non-participants. Both flock size and non-farm incomes differed significantly (5%) between market participants and non-participants. The participants had a larger flock size while non-participants had more income. The results of the probit model further revealed that the first stage of market participation was significantly affected by distance of the household to the market (1%), flock size (10%), and ownership of a bicycle (1%). In the second stage (outcome model), the OLS results revealed that flock size, distance to the market and market price of indigenous chicken significantly (1%) affected the indigenous chicken farmer’s value of sales. In conclusion, creation of effective marketing systems that would help reduce transaction costs of the indigenous chicken, provision of extension and veterinary services will not only increase the flock sizes kept by the smallholder farmers but also the value of sales of indigenous chicken for the farmers that participate in the market. Key words: Heckman model, smallholder farmers, indigenous chicken, market participation, Gulu district.

English

Indigenous chicken (IC) contribute significantly to income and food security of rural communities. However, the IC are kept in systems that are characterised by high risk conditions such as diseases, predation, inadequate feeding and poor housing resulting in sub optimal production levels and profitability. Agricultural insurance therefore becomes an attractive option of minimizing these risks. Uptake of agricultural insurance on IC remains low in Kenya. Furthermore, information on agricultural insurance as a tool of minimizing risk is limited. The objective of the study was to investigate IC farmers’ attitude towards agricultural insurance with the aim of providing important information to insurance firms and compensation schemes targeting IC. Structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data from 240 IC farmers in Nyanza region using a multi stage sampling procedure. Mean score from a five point Likert type scale was used to analyze agricultural insurance attitude of IC farmers. Results established that IC farmers had a positive attitude towards agricultural insurance. Farmers indicated that agricultural production was faced with a variety of risks and uncertainty and that insurance was beneficial and reduces production related stress. However, they were willing to pay for an insurance scheme publicly owned and that agricultural insurance should be mandatory. Therefore, the study recommends that government and non-governmental organization need to sensitize IC farmers on the importance of agricultural insurance policy. Insurance firms need to reach out to the farmers on their role in mitigating risk, offer their products and services and charge affordable insurance premium to them. Key words: Insurance, attitude, indigenous chicken.

Determinants of market participation by indigenous poultry farmers: a case study in Anuradhapura district in Sri Lanka

Backyard poultry farming provides multiple benefits to rural farm families in Sri Lanka. Indigenous chicken or the village chicken is the main component in backyard poultry rearing system. However, the indigenous chicken population is gradually being reduced in the country, mainly with the introduction of exotic breeds. In addition, market share of indigenous chicken is diminishing over the years. Identification of the characteristics of the farmers selling indigenous chicken and the factors that affect the market participation by indigenous chicken farmers will be useful in conservation and sustainable utilization of indigenous chicken. Hence, the objectives of this study were to identify the factors that determine poultry market participation and sales of indigenous chicken farmers. Those determinants were evaluated by using Heckman two stage econometric model. The study was carried out in Thirappane Veterinary Division (covering four selected villages) in Anuradhapura district. Data were collected by a household survey using a structured questionnaire from 104 households rearing indigenous chicken. The first step of the Heckman two stage procedure results showed that households’ decision to participate in the poultry market was significantly (p Tropical Agricultural Research Vol. 24 (4): 347-361 (2013)

Information Needs of Indigenous Chicken Farmers in Enugu State: Implications for Agricultural Extension Service

Aims: The study ascertained the information needs of indigenous chicken (Gallus domesticus) farmers. Study Design: Multistage sampling technique was utilized in selecting respondents. Place and Duration: Nsukka and Enugu-Ezike agricultural zones of Enugu State, Nigeria between November 2012 to May 2013. Methodology: Simple random sampling technique was used to select four blocks from each of the two agricultural zones and five cells from each of the selected blocks. This gave a total of twenty cells. One hundred indigenous farmers were then selected across the twenty cells. Interview schedule was used to collect data. Descriptive statistics such as percentages, frequency counts and mean scores were used in presenting data. The statistical package used for data analysis was SPSS. Results: Majority (93.0%) of the respondents were females, married (67.0%). About 42.0% had no formal education while up to 95% had no extension contact for the past one year. Sixty one percent of the respondents had no access to credit and majority (89.0%) participated in rural social Original Research Article Chah et al.; BJAST, 7(4): 404-411, 2015; Article no.BJAST.2015.158 405 organizations. The respondents indicated that they needed information on the specification of drugs, availability of day old chicks, pests and disease control and methods of vaccination, among others Also, respondents carried out management practices such as provision of supplementary feeding, drinking water, use of various disease control measures and reared their chicken using the extensive system of production. Seventy percent of the respondents sourced information on indigenous chicken management practices. Out of the 70%, 58% and 10% sourced such information from family/friends and other farmers, respectively. Adequate information on poultry production practices should be disseminated by extension agents so as to improve indigenous chicken production.

Estimating consumer preferences and willingness to pay for the underutilised indigenous chicken products

Indigenous chicken serves many functions, which include the provision of meat and eggs for home consumption and income from sales. The purpose of this study was to estimate the consumers’ responsiveness to an increase in prices of the indigenous chicken products and how much they are willing to pay for them in the market. The survey was conducted in the selected three regions of Kenya. A total of 930 respondents were interviewed both in the urban and rural areas. Contingent valuation experiment was used in empirical data collection. The two-step Heckman selection model was utilised to analyse consumers decisions and the amount they were willing to pay. The study results revealed that consumers are willing to pay 23.26% per kg more for indigenous chicken meat and 41.53% for eggs. Socioeconomic factors like age, income, education and family size significantly determines consumers’ willingness to pay. Other important factors include the indigenous chicken meat substitutes’ prices, attributes like taste/flavour and the product’s form on purchase. The yolk colour and size of eggs determined the consumers’ willingness to pay. Preferences for indigenous chicken products were found to be high. This information will assist in understanding both the urban and rural consumer’s behaviour. Therefore, useful for the indigenous chicken producers, breeders, marketers and policy makers in developing efficient production and marketing strategies. This would also provide a means of improving food security and livelihoods of the rural poor indigenous chicken farmers.

Characterization of indigenous chicken production systems in Kenya

Indigenous chicken (IC) and their production systems were characterized to understand how the whole system operates for purposes of identifying threats and opportunities for holistic improvement. A survey involving 594 households was conducted in six counties with the highest population of IC in Kenya using structured questionnaires. Data on IC farmers' management practices were collected and analysed and inbreeding levels calculated based on the effective population size. Indigenous chicken were ranked highest as a source of livestock income by households in medium- to high-potential agricultural areas, but trailed goats in arid and semi-arid areas. The production system practised was mainly low-input and small-scale free range, with mean flock size of 22.40 chickens per household. The mean effective population size was 16.02, translating to high levels of inbreeding (3.12%). Provision for food and cash income were the main reasons for raising IC, whilst high mortality due to diseases, poor nutrition, housing and marketing channels were the major constraints faced by farmers. Management strategies targeting improved healthcare, nutrition and housing require urgent mitigation measures, whilst rural access road network needs to be developed for ease of market accessibility. Sustainable genetic improvement programmes that account for farmers' multiple objectives, market requirements and the production circumstances should be developed for a full realization of IC productivity.