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Peace, health or fortune?

Profile image of Valentin AGBOValentin AGBO

2010, Ecological Economics

https://doi.org/10.1016/J.ECOLECON.2010.04.027
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45 pages

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Abstract

Fifty-four percent of Benin's population in rural areas keep indigenous chickens for subsistence livelihoods. Maintaining diversity in chicken gene pools can provide several benefits for farmers, including risk pooling, diversification of income and maintaining availability of chickens suitable for cultural ceremonies. Despite the potential to alleviate poverty by improving indigenous chicken breeds, smallholders' participation in the implementation of breeding programmes is weak. Participation can be improved with greater understanding of the many functions of chickens to smallholders, particularly their economic contribution. The objectives of this study are (1) to evaluate chicken traits including market and non-market values, and (2) to assess factors that influence the conservation of indigenous breeds. Choice modelling, a multi-attribute preference elicitation technique, was applied across 300 households in two districts in Benin (Dassa and Toffo). The results revealed that adaptive and performance traits in chicken breeds are highly valued by farmers and that preferences differed greatly between farmers in the two districts. Many of the preferred traits are expressed in indigenous chickens, whose conservation should be supported through village chicken breeding programmes. However, a preference for white plumage, most common among exotic breeds, could hinder conservation of indigenous breeds, which are mostly brown or black. From an economic point of view, the aim of conserving culturally significant and disease resistant indigenous breeds is contrary to the objective of increasing chicken productivity. The lack of knowledge about chicken characterization and a lack of flock management were identified as further severe constraints to village breeding and conservation programmes.

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Journal of livestock science, 2024

The aim of the study was to identify the breeding objectives and selection criteria of farmers for indigenous chickens in southern region of Ethiopia. Data were subjected to GLM procedures of Statistical Analysis System (SAS 2012, ver. 9.4) by fitting zones as independent variable to analyze the chicken population composition. Moreover, ranking analyses were used for computing data on breeding objective and selection criteria of indigenous chicken. Indexes were used to calculate data collected from rankings using weighed averages. Hens and chicks showed significantly (p<0.05) higher in number for Wolaita; however, the number of cockerels is significantly (p<0.05) higher in Hadiya followed by Wolaita zone. The results of this study suggested that farmers have different breeding objectives for their chicken. Across all the three studied zones, egg production was ranked first; however, rearing chickens for the cultural purpose is documented as less across all the three studied zones of the southern Ethiopia. The selection criteria used for selection of breeding hen; egg number, plumage color, hatchability, broodiness and egg size were the traits of highest importance for selection purpose with an index values of 0.365, 0.129, 0.129, 0.120 and 0.102 respectively. The highest selection criteria used to select breeding cock were body size, growth rate, plumage color and comb type. Development of a breeding programs for improvement of indigenous chicken strains should focus on the traits prioritized by farmers because of breeding goals developed without considering the needs of all the stakeholders have high chances of failerity by end users.

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Production objectives and trait preferences of village poultry producers of Ethiopia: implications for designing breeding schemes utilizing indigenous chicken genetic resources
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Farmers preferences towards breeding objective for indigenous chickens in different agro-ecologies of Ethiopia
berhanu bekele

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A study was conducted in different agro-ecologies of Ethiopia with the objective of understanding the farmers’ preferences towards breeding objectives in indigenous chickens. For the interview, 245 households (60 from lowland, 100 from midland and 85 from highland) were randomly selected. Farmers in lowland had significantly (p&lt;0.05) lower chicken populations while comparing with the remaining agro-ecologies. The average age of village pullets at first egg was 6.54±0.063 months. There was significantly (p&lt;0.05) higher egg production in midland. There was significant difference (p&lt;0.05) in clutch number among the three agro-ecologies. Among the three agro-ecologies; midland showed significantly (p&lt;0.05) higher number of eggs set/hen. Effective population size of village chickens per household was calculated as 4.43, 7.8 and 7.18 in lowland, midland and highland respectively. Most of the farmers (91%) were practicing culling their chickens for getting old, sickness, broodi...

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Breeding Practices and Trait Preferences of Indigenous Chicken Farmers at Madiga Village, Polokwane Local Municipality, South Africa
Arcc Journals

Agricultural Science Digest, Volume 43 Issue 6: 845-851 (December), 2023

Background: Understanding of breeding practices and traits preferences of the communal farmers is the bottom-up approach where livestock specialists assist farmers to identify and understand their production challenges before designing an improvement program. This study was conducted to identify the socioeconomic status, breeding practices, production systems and trait preferences of chicken keepers at Madiga village, Limpopo province. Methods: A total of 38 chicken farmers out of 62 were administered a well-structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and Chisquare test were used to analyse and test the significance among the gender respectively. Result: The results showed that the breeding practices were not significantly affected by gender (p>0.05). Almost all the farmers in Madiga village were keeping indigenous breeds. The results indicated that the majority of the farmers were improving their indigenous chickens mainly by pure breeding. The most common trait preferences of farmers in breeding cocks were body size, mating ability and growth rate while in breeding hens they were mothering ability, hatchability and growth rate. This study indicated that pure breeding, culling and both controlled and uncontrolled mating system were the most common breeding practices in Madiga village. This study might help to attract animal scientists to develop a multipurpose chicken breed that will express the traits preferred by farmers under village production environment and promote chicken production and food security as a result.

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An Analysis of Factors That Determines the Choice of Indigenous Chicken (Ic) Owned by Rural Households in Alice Communal Area, South Africa
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Journal of Agribusiness and Rural Development, 2021

African indigenous chickens (IC) though commonly kept by households in rural areas for consumption and sale, their contribution to rural livelihoods is generally overlooked. Literature suggests that IC production plays a vital role in rural communities of South Africa as an important source of animal protein and income. Despite these claimed benefits, production of indigenous chickens in Alice and other parts of South Africa’s rural areas is very low. This study used a cross-sectional survey of 120 households who keep IC in Alice communal area. The multivariate probit model was employed to investigate the factors that determine the choice of indigenous chicken owned by rural households. Results reveal that, gender, age, household size, association membership, access to formal markets, access to veterinary services, access to informal credit, access to formal credit and diversity score drive ownership of different indigenous chickens at household level. Thus far, the paper argues tha...

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Agroecology Is Affecting Village Chicken Producers' Breeding Objective in Ethiopia
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Scientifica, 2022

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Community-based interventions for the use and conservation of animal genetic resources: the case of indigenous scavenger chicken production in Benin
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Scavenging chicken production in Africa is important for the livelihood of the poor. In most countries, these low inputs, low output systems employ local breeds making use of the feeding resources available in the household. However, their replacement with introduced exotic breeds with higher productivities represents a risk for their conservation. Here, we present a simulation model to evaluate the impact of community-based interventions aiming to improve the profitability of local chicken breeds and promote their use and conservation. The results indicate that under the current conditions, farmers producing exotic chicken are able to sell more animals in a one year period; however the market price of local chicken makes their production more profitable. Vaccination campaigns significantly reduce the mortality rate of both breeds, having a positive effect on producers' income but its impact on animal off-take is larger for exotic breeds, and the availability of feeding resources is the limiting factor as the flock size increases. The results of the intervention are positive in terms of increasing farmers' income but do not clearly contribute to the conservation of indigenous breeds since after the vaccination campaign, the gap between the profitability of indigenous and exotic breeds is reduced. The simulation model indicates that under the current conditions, the conservation of indigenous chicken breeds in Benin is maintained by the existence of distinct niche markets with consumers able to pay higher prices for indigenous chicken. Policies for the conservation of chicken genetic resources in Benin are discussed.

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Choice of breeding stock, preference of production traits and culling criteria of village chickens among Zimbabwe agro-ecological zones
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Free ranging chickens reared by smallholder farmers represent genetic diversity suited for particular environments and shaped by the socioeconomic and cultural values of the farming systems. This study sought to investigate the existence of chicken strains and evaluate the breeding goals and strategies used by village chicken farmers in Zimbabwe. A semistructured questionnaire was administered to 97, 56, 70, 104 and 37 households randomly selected from five agro-ecological-zones I-V, respectively. Fifteen chicken strains mostly defined by morphological traits were reported in the five eco-zones. Production criteria such as body size, and fertility were highly ranked (ranging from 1.3-2.6) by farmers across all the eco-zones, while cultural traits were the least preferred production traits. As a common breeding practice, farmers chose the type of hens and cocks to retain for breeding purposes and these randomly mixed and mated with others from community flocks. Chicken body size was ranked the major determinant in choosing breeding animals followed by mothering ability, and fertility. More households culled chickens associated with poor reproductive performance, poor growth rates and those intolerant to disease pathogens. The focus on many negatively correlated production traits and the absence of farmer records compromises breeding strategies in these production systems.

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Peace, health or fortune?: Preferences for chicken traits in rural Benin
Kerstin Zander

2010

Fifty-four percent of Benin's population in rural areas keep indigenous chickens for subsistence livelihoods. Maintaining diversity in chicken gene pools can provide several benefits for farmers, including risk pooling, diversification of income and maintaining availability of chickens suitable for cultural ceremonies. Despite the potential to alleviate poverty by improving indigenous chicken breeds, smallholders' participation in the implementation of breeding programmes is weak. Participation can be improved with greater understanding of the many functions of chickens to smallholders, particularly their economic contribution. The objectives of this study are (1) to evaluate chicken traits including market and non-market values, and (2) to assess factors that influence the conservation of indigenous breeds. Choice modelling, a multi-attribute preference elicitation technique, was applied across 300 households in two districts in Benin (Dassa and Toffo). The results revealed that adaptive and performance traits in chicken breeds are highly valued by farmers and that preferences differed greatly between farmers in the two districts. Many of the preferred traits are expressed in indigenous chickens, whose conservation should be supported through village chicken breeding programmes. However, a preference for white plumage, most common among exotic breeds, could hinder conservation of indigenous breeds, which are mostly brown or black. From an economic point of view, the aim of conserving culturally significant and disease resistant indigenous breeds is contrary to the objective of increasing chicken productivity. The lack of knowledge about chicken characterization and a lack of flock management were identified as further severe constraints to village breeding and conservation programmes.

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    Roch Zossou

    Agricultural Finance Review, 2020

    PurposeThis document analyses farmers&#39; preferences and willingness to pay (CAP) for microcredit, in order to facilitate their access in rural areas.Design/methodology/approachData are based on a discrete choice experiment with 400 randomly selected farmers from 20 villages of the 7 Benin agricultural development hubs (ADHs). The preference choice modelling was performed using mixed logit (MXL) and latent class logit (LCL) models. Farmers&#39; willingness to pay for each preferred attribute was estimated. The endogenous attribute attendance (EAA) model was also used to capture attribute non-attendance (ANA) phenomenon.FindingsThe results indicate that, on average, farmers prefer individual loans, low interest rates, in kind + cash loans, cash loans, disbursement before planting and loans with at least 10-month duration. These preferences vary according to farmers&#39; classes. Farmers are willing to pay higher or lower interest rates depending on attribute importance. The estimat...

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    Community-based performance indicators for monitoring and evaluating livestock interventions
    Vimbai Gobvu

    Tropical Animal Health and Production, 2021

    The research aimed at identifying livestock performance indicators used by farmers in Malipati community, Zimbabwe, and use them in developing a monitoring and evaluation framework for livestock interventions. Mixed methods research was used in the study. A questionnaire was administered to identify performance indicators of preference by farmers. Focus group discussions were done to rank performance indicators. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 25, and data were analysed using the ranking matrix. Scientific validity of performance indicators was determined through literature review. The study concluded that performance indicators of importance in poultry, cattle, goats/sheep, and donkeys were egg production, milk yield, kidding/lambing interval, and animal power, respectively. All performance indicators identified by farmers in Malipati are scientifically valid and were used in the development of the monitoring and evaluation framework.

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