Participatory on-farm evaluation and demonstration of improved dual purpose chicken production technology in South Omo zone, Ethiopia

The demonstration was conducted with aim to introduce the improved chicken production technology and evaluate production performance under farmers’ management condition. Total of 4 kebeles and 40 participant women farmers were selected purposively. Training was offered to participant women and key stakeholders. About 20 to 30 numbers of improved 45-day old chicks were disseminated to each participant. Frequent follow-up, periodic evaluation and monitoring was undertaken by researchers and stakeholders. Chicken mortality and weight gain data were collected at different growth stages and at fist clutch frequency of laying and weight of eggs were recorded. Farmers’ perception and feedbacks were also collected during field visits. Three-point likert-scale ranking, cost-benefit and descriptive statistical analyses were used to analyze the data. The results revealed that, eggs production performance of the breed was reached on average 5 eggs per week, when supplementary feeds were provided. Out of 261 total chicken deaths recorded, 64.37% and 35.63% were caused by disease and mismanagement respectively. Moreover, household rearing about 25 chickens could gain average net income of 13,846.37 Birr/year on semi-intensive production system. Therefore, scaling-up of improved koekoek chicken breed with its full package improves poultry productivity in areas with similar agro-ecologies.