Socioeconomic importance and production characteristics of village poultry production in Ethiopia: A review

Abstract

This paper is aimed at reviewing the socio-economic importance and production characteristics of village poultry production in Ethiopia. The review indicated that poultry has played and still play important social and cultural roles in the life of rural people for building social relationships with other villages. The review also confirmed the widely recognized contribution of smallholder poultry to the income and internal household position of women. However, there is generally scant literature on poultry marketing system in the country. The limited research conducted so far showed that a large number of marketing agents involved in the poultry marketing chain where an average trader handled between 40 to 100 chickens per week while a middle man managed 2000 eggs per month. Poorly developed poultry input supply system including feed supply and availability of veterinary services in this country has adverse effect on the productivity and profitability of this subsector.

Keywords: village poultry production, socio-economics, constraints, opportunities