Current Prospects of Husbandry and Breeding Practices of Chicken Populations Rearing in Rural Communities: For Sustainable Improvement Interventions

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the present scenario of chicken husbandry and breeding practices in the rural districts of Sidama Region, southern Ethiopia. Four districts, namely Hula, Shebedino, Aleta Chuko, and Boricha were purposefully selected based on their chicken production potential and agroecological distinctiveness. The study data were collected from 161 chicken-keeping households through interviews, on-farm follow-ups, group discussions, and field observations. Descriptive statistics and indexed ranking procedures were applied to summarize the data using SAS software. The chicken farming system was predominantly free-scavenging, followed by slowly growing semi-intensive and few intensive farming systems. The majority of rural farmers were keeping chickens primarily to support family income and for home use. A decreasing flock size of indigenous chickens and an increasing trend of improved chicken distribution and rearing were observed. It has been noted that farmers have a good experience of selecting hatching eggs, breeding cocks, and hens. In highland districts, pure breeding is common, while in midland and lowland districts, crossbreeding is more common due to the high distribution of exotic breeds. In all study districts, chickens mainly rely on scavenging with minimal feed supplementation and sit on simple perches fixed in family houses and kitchens. More than 65% of farmers use various traditional medications that were known by farmers to cure sick chickens. Furthermore, the study identified seasonal feed shortages, disease outbreaks, unplanned breeding, limited management knowledge, predators, and drought as major bottlenecks to chicken production. Thus, these findings could raise guiding information to improve small-scale chicken husbandry and breeding practices, which help poor rural families, and the major bottlenecks to ensure sustainable poultry farming were identified. Moreover, the high mortality of chickens observed during peak dry and wet seasons in the Boricha and Hula districts, respectively, calls for further research on the adaptation potentials of chickens in their respective ecologies.