The survey of village chicken production in Mumbwa District
Date
2015-11-11
Authors
Kumwenda, Samson
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Abstract
A survey was conducted in Mumbwa District to evaluate the village chicken production with special attention to their phenotypic characteristics. The survey was carried out in the months of July to August 2003. The exercise involved the use of questionnaires in which 96 randomly selected HH, were interviewed. Four strategic camps were chosen i.e. Nalubanda (424 HH), Mumba Scheme (300 HH), Kayanga (320) and Mumbwa Central (915). The questionnaires were used to obtain demographic data, local names of the chicken breeds, flock structures, flock sales, management aspects which included feeding, housing and disease control. The family sizes are in the range of Ito 19 persons. The number of children per family is 1 to 12 and average number of children per family is Sand 6. It was observed that 50% of the households do not keep dependants. The number of chickens kept ranges from 10 to 80. Based on the phenotypic characteristics of the local chickens, the breeds identified are naked necks (Kalukuluku), Dwarf (Chifuli), Frizzled (Chinese), Spotted (Mabala-ankanga) and feathered legs. It is evident that there are phenotypic variations in local chickens in Mumbwa, which can be made use of to improve the productivity of these chickens. The chickens are left to scavenge for food and only supplemented when food is plenty. 60%HH feed maize grain, 27%HH nshima, 23%HH sorghum, 22%sunflower, 6%HH maize meal and 3%HH termites to their local chickens. The main constraints identified are poor housing structures, unreliable health and disease control methods, inadequate feeding due to low feed-resource base, theft and predators.
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Keywords
Chickens-Breeding-Mumbwa, Zambia , Home-Based business-Mumbwa, Zambia , Zambia-Rural Conditions