Present status of village chicken farming system in coastal belt of Ampara District

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.