Poultry production and constraints in Eastern Province of Rwanda: case study of Rukomo sector, Nyagatare district

Abstract

A study was conducted in Rukomo sector, Nyagatare district, to determine the status of poultry production. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 100 poultry farmers randomly as 20 farmers from each of the five cells. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16 and presented in chart and tables. The majority of the farmers (84%) reared their poultry in free range system while 10% practiced semi-intensive and only 6% did intensive production. Only 12% of the respondents kept exotic poultry breeds. The breeding stock were mostly obtained from local markets (63%) and the average flock size was about 1-10 birds per homestead (70%). The confinement of poultry at night was either in the main domestic house (33%), in kitchen (32%), or in separate poultry house (35%). Flock records were rare and kept by only 9% of respondents. Poultry products were reportedly at high demand by 87% of respondents and 89% farmers reported profit from their enterprises. Lack of veterinary and financial assistance was reported by 72% of respondents. Newcastle disease (57%) was the main health constraint followed by ectoparasites and internal worms. Many farmers (50%) were in dire need of veterinary assistance and financial support to improve their poultry enterprises. Poor management practices were reported to be one of the crucial factors leading to poor production. Lack of quality feeds (38%) and feeding of poultry, credit (20%), and poor market accessibility (19%) were the main challenges reported.

Factors Affecting Women Access to Agricultural Extension Services: Evidence from Poultry Producer Women’s in Northwestern Tigray, Ethiopia

“…On the other side, 58.33% of the women producers who have no access to extension service had no separate poultry houses. Findings (Mazimpaka et al, 2018;Olaniyan & Camara, 2018) also reported that most of the respondents kept their birds in kitchen and family dwellings. The construction of separate poultry houses observed in the study area encourages the producers to increase their number of chickens.…”

“…This is in agreement with the report that the number of farmers using modern medicine was small because of low veterinarian accessibility, lack of awareness and inadaptability to use modern medicines (Melkamu & Wube, 2013). And according to Mazimpaka et al (2018) modern approaches to poultry disease management were still very less. Commonly, the awareness of the producers on poultry vaccination in the study area is minimal.…”

Possible Outbreak of Newcastle Virus Infection in the Face of Increasing Trend of Backyard Poultry Farm Management Interface in Nigeria: A Public Health and Food Security Threat

“…Over 70% of chickens are raised under free range systems by smallholder farmers in Africa [215,216]. According to Olwande P, et al [217], the birds in free range systems are kept with little or no care as the birds are allowed to roam freely [218].…”

An analysis of factors that determines the choice of indigenous chicken (IC) owned by rural households in Alice Communal Area, South Africa

“…Indigenous chickens, therefore, provide a balanced farming system securing emergency cash income and high-quality animal protein critical for the socio-cultural livelihoods of the rural households (Raphulu and van Rensburg, 2018). Despite the claimed benefits, the production of indigenous chickens in rural areas is very low (Mazimpaka et al, 2018). Some households in rural areas do not own indigenous chickens (Makaya et al, 2012), despite their low cost of production (Mahoro et al, 2018;Mubamba et al, 2018), adaptability to local conditions and nutritional value -protein source (Idowu et al, 2018).…”

“…With high demand, low production costs, adaptability to local conditions and nutritional value as suggested by the literature, intuitively, indigenous chicken production in rural areas should be high. On the contrary, however, production is declining and fast being replaced by hybrid breeds expensive to produce and associated with several health problems (Mazimpaka et al, 2018). This study, therefore, seeks to understand ownership of indigenous chickens at the household level, given their suggested benefits amid declining production.…”