Abstract

This study was conducted in Gena Bossa district with the objective of assessing the productive and reproductive performance of indigenous chickens. Multistage stratified purposive and random sampling methods were used and a total of 138 households were interviewed in the study area. Fifteen, fifty four and sixty nine farmers selected for interviews from highland, midland and lowland agro-ecologies, respectively. From the interviewed farmers, 47, 47 and 44 farmers were poor, medium and rich wealth leveled, respectively. Farmers were categorized to their education level and 34, 34, 35 and 35 respondents were interviewed from illiterate, reading and writing, primary first and primary second cycle education level, respectively. Age at sexual maturity of pullets and cockerels were 5.64 and 5.25 months, respectively. The clutch number, eggs per clutch and total eggs/hen/year were 3.04, 12.78 and 38.53, respectively. In this survey, hatchability and survival rate of chicks were 81.72 and 38.85%, respectively. Sexual maturity, number of eggs per clutch and hatchability were significantly (p<0.05) different at different agro-ecology and education levels but not significantly (p>0.05) different at different wealth levels of farmers. Generally, low productive and reproductive performance of indigenous chickens were recorded under farmer’s management condition in Gena Bossa District of Dawro Zone which needs further improvement from the government by organizing trainings for farmers on  disease control, housing and feeding of chickens to improve productive and reproductive performance.

Key words: Agro-ecology, education level, wealth status, productive and reproductive performance, Indigenous chickens, Gena Bossa.