Abstract:
The study was conducted to assess the
characteristics of the village chicken farming
system in the Ampara district. Data collection was
carried out on 100 village chicken rearing farmers
from five veterinary ranges in the Ampara district.
Structured interviews, unstructured interviews
with farmers, and field observations were the
approaches used to collect the data on different
farming practices. The average flock size per farm
was 97.5±72.01. The number of birds in the house
per farmer per year was 97.70±10.3. The average
egg production per hen per clutch was 12.3±1.0.
The major feed sources were rice bran (31.4%)
and paddy (22.9%). Tap water (64%) was given
Adlibitum (82%) throughout the day. The overall
average annual egg production was 147.6±12.3.
In this study, the hatchability rate of Village
chicken was 80.53%. Half of the respondents
purchasing chicks from the market for their farm.
The average motility rate was 13.32%. The major
causes of death of chickens during the study were
gumboro disease, fowl cholera, fowl fox. The
results of the analysis revealed that there is a
significant relationship between gender and
reason for rearing and between educational level
and reason for rearing. The dominant village
chicken farming system of the study area was
Semi-intensive (54 %) farming system. The
findings revealed that village chickens had a
relatively good egg production potential. The
mortality rate and feeding practices of village
chicken farming in the study site still needed to be
controlled by improving management practices
and establishing an effective breeding system.
