Study of production practices, and productivity of village chicken in Chelliya District, Ethiopia

Abstract

Assessment of production and productivity of village chicken were conducted in two agro-ecology (midland, highland) and eight rural kebeles (RKs), in Chelliya district. A total of 120 households were participated in the survey. The study revealed that the primary aim of chicken rearing is for sale of live chicken (31.81%) followed by for incubation (30.7%). the overall village chicken flock size was 3.81±0.18 per household. The major supplement feed for chicken was wheat grain (59.2 %) followed by food leftover (25.8%). About 70.8% of the respondents give more supplements to layers followed by chicks (10.8%). Hens/layers got the priority highest attention because farmers believe that supplemented hens lay more eggs. About 53.3% of the households shared the same room followed by a separately constructed houses (33.3%) and separate quarter in the same roof for family (13.3%). The Parameters used for selecting breeding village chicken were plumage colors (30%), body weight (27.5%), comp type (23.3%), breed type (12.5%), and comp shape (6.7%), in that order. The major diseases reported in the study area was Newcastle disease (85 %) and 15% other diseases including Coccidosis, Fowl pox and Fowl typhoid. generally exotic breeds seems to perform better than indigenous and there is a need for improvement in production practices and productivity of the cross breeds and indigenous breeds.

Keywords: Village chicken, Productivity, Marketing, Household, Ethiopia