Abstract:
This study was conducted to characterize village chicken production and marketing system of Dedo
Woreda of Jimma Zone. Three different agro- ecologies (high, mid and lowlands) of the Woreda were
purposively selected based on poultry population and accessibility. Stratified probability random
sampling method was followed to select two peasant associations (PA) from each of the three agroecology and 30 households from each of the six PAs. Thus a total of 180 (6x30) households (hh) were
used to carry out the survey on management practices, marketing system and production performance
of village chickens. Eggs collected from the different altitudes were studied for quality, hatchability
and chick performance. The results obtained showed that the major scavenging poultry
supplementary feed in Dedo woreda was 88.3% cereal grains. . About 70.6% of the respondents said
to have provided separate poultry house during night times. About 45, 23.3, 15, 12.8,2.6 and 1.1% of
the respondents indicated that Coccidiosis, Cholera, Infectious bronchitis, Newcastle disease , Fowl
pox and External parasite as economically important poultry disease with frequent outbreak in the
study area. About 49.2% of the respondents indicated that wild Egyptian Vulture was dangerous
predator attacking young chicks. About 96.1% of the chicken found in the study area belongs to the
non-descriptive indigenous chickens. The annual income from the sale of poultry and poultry
products in the study area was Birr 335/hh. About 47.8% of the respondents reported to have access
to the extension service of the Woreda. About 78 % of the respondents reported to attain annual egg
production level of 35-62 from indigenous hen with an estimated hatchability of 20.8%, with the use
of natural incubation. About 95% of the respondents indicated that women and children are
responsible for the management and marketing of chickens. This study showed that eggs collected
from Dedo Woreda were poor in most of the egg quality parameters. The growth performance and
survival rate of chicks hatched from eggs collected from Dedo Woreda were also found to be poor.
Appropriate intervention in health care and control of predators and Provision of better extension
service, credit schemes and training opportunities tends to result in increased productivity of village
poultry in the Dedo Wereda. Further investigation in to the constraints and potential of indigenous
chicken based village poultry seems to be the future direction of research in Dedo Wereda.
