Assessment of Indigenous Chicken Production Techniques and Management Practices among Rural Farmers in Semi-Arid Nigeria: A Study of Traditional Poultry-Rearing Systems
Keywords:
Flock, Management practices, Pullets, CockerelsAbstract
Indigenous chickens produce meat that is preferred by majority of Africans, because of its leanness and taste when compared to the exotic one. A study was conducted in semi-arid region of Nigeria, with the objective of characterizing the techniques of production. The management practices employed by indigenous chicken farmers and the relative contributions of house hold members in the production of indigenous chicken, using a multi-stage purposive sampling procedures in which 300 respondents were sampled. The stages were sampling of six states (Kano, Katsina, Jigawa, Sokoto, Zamfara and Kebbi), two Local Government Areas (LGA) from each of the state based on history of massive chicken production in the area, five communities within the LGAs households based on the possession of at least five indigenous chickens. Data collected comprised, of production and management practices, employed in massive chicken rearing in the region. The result showed that respondents flock size ranges from 1 to 5 cocks (75.2%), 1 to 5 hens (57.7%), 1 to 5 cockerels (87.2%), 1 to 5 pullets (84.7%) and 1 to 5 chicks (33.8%) and are mostly owned by the household head. Women dominated local poultry management activities while majority of men provided housing. Indigenous chickens were mostly acquired through direct purchase and raised on free range system for commercial purposes, with the majority of the owners supplementing with cereal grains (58.2%) by broadcasting on ground (56.4%) twice daily (36.7%) and provided water (98%) in mud containers (38.1%) daily. Also, 83 % of the respondents experienced disease outbreak in their flock. It is therefore concluded that there is a sustainable production technique with prospective replacement stock and with women in the management activities. It is thus recommended that, on farm adaptive programmes for indigenous chicken improvement be introduced in households with flock size of 5 each of cockerel and pullets to be offered supplement mornings and evenings in simple clay pots by women.
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