Production and reproduction performance of local chicken breeds and their marketing practices in Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

A study was conducted in Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia to assess production and reproduction performances of local chickens and their marketing practices. Three districts vize Damot-Gale, Boloso-Sore and Humbo representing, highland, midland and lowland agro-ecologies, respectively, were selected purposively. The data were collected from a total of 135 respondents, 45 from each agroecology, using pre-tested structured questionnaires and analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. There was a significant (P<0.05) difference in local flock size per household among the three agro-ecologies. The average chicken flock size per household was 6.0 heads. Clutch length, clutch number per year per hen, total number of eggs laid per hen per year, number of eggs hatched, hatchability and chick survival were significantly (P<0.05) different among the agro-ecologies. The overall average age at sexual maturity was 5.6 months (male) and 5.5 months (female) chickens, age at first egg laying was 6.5 months, number of eggs laid per clutch per hen was 14.8, clutch length was 26.0 days, clutch number per year per hen was 4.2 and mean number of eggs laid per year per hen were 59.1. The overall number of eggs placed per brooding hen was 12.8 of which 10.0 were hatched and out of which only 7.1 chickens survived. The overall hatchability was 79.1%. Marketing of live chicken and eggs were common; 69.6% of respondents sold both chicken and egg, 20% sold only eggs, 10.4% sold only chicken, 71.9% used formal market while only 8.9% used informal market to sell their products. Local chicken productivity and re-productivity are low and so, different improvement strategies should be introduced.

Farmers preferences towards breeding objective for indigenous chickens in different agro-ecologies of Ethiopia

“…This is a longer while comparing to the study conducted by Melaku (2016) who reported that 5.68 months in Southern Wollo for pullets to lay the first egg. Also congruent with the report of Gebreegziabher and Tsegaye, (2016) who stated that the age at first egg was 6.3, 6.2 and 7 months in lowland, midland and highland, respectively in Wolaita Zone; whereas, Addisu et al, (2013) in North Wollo reported that the shorter age at laying 5.43 for pullets.…”

Village Chicken Flock Characteristics and Performances in Western Amhara, Ethiopia

“…Mean number of chicks surviving to weaning per brood in Fagita Lekoma was signi cantly higher than South Achefer and Banija districts and on average, out of the hatched chicks in the present study only 7.63±0.23 chicks survived. This result was similar with 7.1 chicks that survived [27] but higher than the 5.5 chicks that survived as reported by [25].…”

“…According to [15] and [22], hatchability of eggs and the survival rate of the hatched chicken are among the major factors that determine the productivity of chicken. The current nding was higher than 10.0 the result reported by [25] and [27] in southern Ethiopia, 8.1 reported by [15] in Ethiopia and 8.7 by [17] for Ghana in number of eggs hatched per brood.…”

Phenolic composition and antioxidant activities of cladodes of the two varieties of cactus pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) grown in Ethiopia

“…Among these characteristics, the presence or absence of spines is one of the basic parameters to identify the cladodes varieties [9].…”

“…Of these, O. ficus-indica is the most common species that is grown in Ethiopia [6][7][8]. Cactus pear (O. ficus-indica) is commonly known in Ethiopia as "Beles" [6,9].…”