Assessment Of Poultry Production Practices In Tegede District North Gondar Zone North West Ethiopia

The study was conducted from January to May 2017 to assess the poultry production practices in three rural kebeles located in Tegede district North Gondar ZoneNorth West Ethiopia. Three rural kebeles were purposively selected based on their potentiality of chicken production accessibility of the kebeles area coverage and representativeness for the study areas. 30 households were purposively selected from the three kebeles for the survey part of the study and information were collected by using questionnaires from a total of 30 households. The study revealed that the objectives of keeping chicken were for income generation 51.3 household consumption 46.7 and hatching and rearing of chickens for replacement of flock 2. The overall average flock size of respondent farmers in the study area was 17.9 chickens per household for local chicken and less than 5 cross-breed chickens per household. The major source of chicken for parent stock is market purchase 56.7. The results of the study showed that the dominant chicken production system in the study area is an extensive type 83.3. The average age of local village chicken at first egg laying was 6.3 months. The average egg production per hen per clutch of local hens under existing farmer management condition was 14.7. The number of clutch periods recorded per year was 4 giving a total of 58.7 per hen per year. The majority of farmers were housed their chickens by sharing the same room with perch 59. The rest 30 and 11 respondents were used different shelter in the same room with the families and separate building house respectively.The major supplementary feed sources of chicken were obtained from their house 94.7 and purchase from market 5.3.The major water sources for chickens in the study area are pond and deep well water 39 and river water 36.7. Majority of the respondents 60 experience daily cleaning of watering trough and others in varying times per week and depending on the conditions.The most widely used types of watering troughs in the study area were part of plastic equipments 43.3 broken part of clay 30 Purchased watering trough 3.3 and other types 23.3. The most important constraints of poultry production in the study villages were disease outbreak 26 and predators 23.3 were the first and second main constraints that devastating chicken productivity in the study areas. However shortage of supplementary feed 20.3 was the third village chicken production constraint in all study kebeles whereas credit access 17.8 and animal health and extension service 12.7 were the fourth and fifth most important chicken production constraints in the study area.