Population dynamics and performance of exotic versus indigenous chicken population in the selected districts of North Western Amhara, Ethiopia

Abstract

Abstract. Sisay T, Alemayehu K, Wuletaw Z. 2017. Population dynamics and performance of exotic versus indigenous chicken population in the selected districts of North Western Amhara,. Chicken in Ethiopia contributes, respectively, 98.5% and 99.2% of the national egg and chicken meat production. The total chicken population is estimated to be 56.87 million of which 95.86, 2.79 and 1.35% are indigenous, crossbred and exotic breeds, respectively. The objective of this paper was to quantify the population dynamics and performance of exotic versus indigenous chicken population in the selected districts of northwestern Amhara, Ethiopia. Banja and Burie districts and six Kebeles (three/district) were purposively selected. A total 180 respondents were selected by systematic and simple random sampling techniques for the survey. On the other hand, a total of 90 exotic chicken owners were purposively selected for monitoring and evaluation. GLM procedure of SAS (2002) was used to quantify the fixed effects of agroecology and breeds on the egg production performance. The results revealed that the majorities (91.12%) of distributed exotic chickens were kept in traditional/backyard production system. The overall mean egg production for exotic chickens (141.58±11.5) was too low. Significantly, the mean number of clutch per year per hen of Bovans Brown chicken was higher (4.51±0.11 days) than Bovans white breeds (3.5±0.10 days). Shortage at first egg was attained from midland of Koekoek chicken breed (5.38±0.24 months) than from highland (6.54±0.10 months) in Bovans Brown chicken. A highly significant difference in mortality was observed between Bovans Brown (89%) and Koekoek breed (32.4%), respectively due to traditional farmers' management practice. Distribution of different exotic chicken genotypes in the region is increasing from time to time for the upgrading of local chicken ecotypes but, the survival, productivity and population size of exotic and their crosses were too low. On the other hand, the population size of the indigenous chicken and its productivity remains almost constant. Causes of chick mortality in the study area were disease and predator which need to be considered in the development plan of the districts. This is due to the inappropriate production system, genotype, and management. Therefore, production and productivity will be increased through the selection of indigenous chicken ecotypes and crossbreed or upgrading by introduction exotic cocks, pullets and or fertile eggs of high egg producing strains with an appropriate production system and management in respective production system.

Review on Factors Affecting the Participation of Smallholder Farmers in Improved Chicken Rearing in Ethiopia

“…Depending on the available scavenging feed resources in the area, the flock size under this system ranges from 10-50 chickens (Habte et al, 2017). Sisay et al, (2017) studied research on population dynamics and performance of exotic versus indigenous chicken population in the selected districts of North Western Amhara, Ethiopia. Under their result, they concluded that; about 91.12% of respondents used the backyard chicken management system in the studied area, whereas, 8.89% of smallholder farmers kept their chicken by the semi-intensive management system.…”

“…In most developing countries rural poultry plays a significant role in improving the nutritional status, income, food security, and livelihood of many smallholders (Zewdu et al, 2013). Ethiopia ranks first in Africa and the tenth in the world in livestock production, which plays important socioeconomic roles for the rural poor (Fessiha et al, 2010;Sisay et al, 2017).…”