Abstract

A formal survey was conducted in three purposively selected districts of western Amhara, Ethiopia. The major objective of the study was to assess and characterize the existing chicken production and marketing system of the study areas. A total of 160 randomly selected chicken owners were used for the study. The result revealed that there were four chicken production systems in the study areas; scavenging only (2.5%), scavenging with seasonal supplementation (75%), scavenging with regular supplementation (21.9%) and intensive system (0.6%). Accordingly, the dominant (75%) chicken production system was a traditional type, using mainly (95.8%) local ecotypes, managed on scavenging with seasonal feed supplementation. The total chicken flock size/household (HH) was 13.7 with a hen to cock ratio of 4.6:1. The purpose of birds, in order of importance were sale for cash income (51.4%), egg hatching (45%), home consumption (44.3%), use of birds for religious ceremonies (36.4%) and egg production (40.7%). The result indicated that only 7.5% of village chicken owners prepared separate chicken houses for their birds and the rest (92.5%) kept birds in various night sheltering places. The average age of local cockerels at first mating and pullets at first egg were 24.6 and 27.5 weeks, respectively. The study revealed that 97.5% of chicken owners experienced disease problems in their area, mainly Newcastle disease (NCD) (98.2%). The average number of eggs laid/clutch was 13.3 eggs (ranged 10 to 16) and the number of total clutch periods/hen/year was 4 (ranged 3 to 6). The annual egg productivity of local hens, under the existing farmers’ management condition was 51.6 eggs/hen (ranged 30 to 96). The average hatchability performance of local broody hens was 85.9%. However, survivability of locally hatched chicks was low (55.4%). Seasonal diseases outbreaks was the major (76.9%) cause for chicken death. Seasonality of prices was the major (75%) chicken and egg marketing constraint in the areas.

Key words: Local chicken ecotypes, scavenging, village chicken production systems.