The status of indegnous chicken production in northern Uganda

Indegnous chicken production is important for many rural households. Although it is a small and sometimes unorganized sector, it makes a substantial contribution to food security by providing eggs and meat for home consumption and, to some extent, cash income for families. In Northern Uganda, these chickens are usually reared in the traditional way basically scavenging on free range. However production aspects such as the available feeds; feeding management and flock composition have not been studied for purposes of designing appropriate interventions. A baseline study was conducted in February 2013 to assess indegnous chicken production in Northern Uganda focusing on, feeds and feeding, flock composition and productivity. A survey involving 121 households was conducted in Gulu (60) and Kiryandongo districts (61). Two sub-counties were purposively selected from each district. Two parishes were then selected from each sub-county, making a total of four parishes per district, Participating households were randomly selected. Data were collected using a pre-tested structured questionnaire and then analysed using SPSS version 16. The average flock size was 34 ± 3 birds per household, composed of three cocks, eight hens, eight pullets, six cockerels, and ten chicks. Sexual maturity for both males and females was attained at six months. Farmers reported a clutch size of 14 eggs with three laying cycles per hen per year on average. Majority of the farmers (92.6%) offer supplementary feed and water (95.9%) to the indigenous flocks. Feeds included household left overs and home growngrains such as maize (Zea mays), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), millet (Eleusine coracona), ground nuts (Arachis hypogea), soybeans (Glycine max) as well as milling biproducts such as maize and rice bran. In general farmers give more energy rich feeds compared to the protein rich supplements. Availability of the feed stuffs varied widely depending on season. Supplementary feed is scattered on the ground by most of the farmers (62.5%) mainly twice a day. Availabilty of feed resources locally offers an opportunity for improved productivity of local chickens in Northern uganda, however there is need to formulate low cost balanced diets from these resources so as to meet their nutritional requirements.