CURRENT STATUS OF INDIGENOUS CHICKEN PRODUCTION PERFORMANCE, OPPORTUNITY AND CHALLENGES IN ETHIOPIA: A REVIEW

Abstract

The goal of this article is to examine the current state of indigenous chicken production performance, as well as its opportunities and challenges. Indigenous chicken (78.8 %) out of 57 million in Ethiopia is found in huge numbers distributed across different agro-ecological zones. Indigenous chickens are kept in rural areas for a variety of reasons, including animal protein, extra revenue, replacement breeding, and religious/cultural reasons. Indigenous chickens have been reported to have inherent scavenging, foraging, and nesting behavior and are well adapted to harsh environmental conditions. They are characterized by low production and productivity. This is mainly attributed to the poor genetic makeup, huge disease burden, and poor veterinary services, lack of quality and affordable feeds. Studies conducted by several researchers showed that, despite their low overall productivity, indigenous chicken populations have wide ranges of morphological and phenotypic variation within and among them. The average annual egg production of Indigenous chicken in Ethiopia is 46 eggs. Most of the publications reviewed indicated that the age of the first egg ranges from six to seven months indicating late maturity. Generally, the poultry sector’s economic contribution is still not commensurate to the vast number of chickens due to diverse production, reproductive, and infrastructure constraints in the country. Therefore, it must address the challenges facing the poultry sub-sector, a holistic approach to solving the bottlenecks along the poultry value chain is necessary under the current condition in Ethiopia.