Poultry Production, Productivity and Marketing

Scavenging poultry production can be economically efficient with small management changes as regular watering, night enclosures and vaccination. The breeding of egg-type chickens has seen significant changes. Breeders monitor the age at sexual maturity, rate of lay before and after molt, livability in growing and laying house, egg weight, body weight, feed conversion, shell color, shell strength, albumen height and egg inclusions traits affecting the productivity of the parent. The egg production per hen housed is the single most important trait under selection. The small energy and protein supplementation can bring significant improvements in the local birds productivity. Ethiopia has a high chicken population, which is a significant role in human nutrition as a source of household income. The indigenous chicken products are often the only source of animal protein for resource poor households. Thus, improving poultry productivity means increased protein nutrition and income levels of the population. The consumption of poultry meat and eggs is increasing steadily however, little or no work attempted to improve such practice of poultry marketing.