Lessons,challenges in rearing the ‘native’ breeds of chicken

Dar es Salaam. A resident of Mbezi Luis in Dar es Salaam Region, Dorothy Tesha, harboured hope of owning at least 100 local breed chickens in two years, but she ended up counting losses.

Her first batch of 30 local breed chicken she was keeping died of various diseases.

She admitted that her failure to adhere to technologies, which apply to successfully rearing chickens – including feeding and disease control measures – were among the main causes of the death of her chicks.

“I started with five local breed chicks and within 10 months the number had grown to 30. But, because I had no training on how to rear chickens, they all died,” she recalled.

She revealed that she has started with a new batch of 15 chicks after undergoing training by experts and now she plans to increase that number in due course of time and events, applying the techniques he acquired from the training.

Ms Tesha said local breed chickens fetch more money at the market, commanding a price ranging from about Sh14,000 to Sh25,000 a chicken. By comparison, ordinary chickens that are raised artificially are rarely sold at more than Sh6,000 each.

Research shows that Tanzania has about 74.2 million chickens at any given time, about 38.2 million of which are local breeds, which also provide almost all the poultry products used in rural areas.

Nearly 90 percent of the indigenous chickens are raised by smallholder farmers in rural Tanzania.

“The demand for meat and eggs from indigenous chickens has been increasing because of their perceived image as nutritious, healthy and natural products,” she said.

Poultry farming, she said, needs extra maintenance efforts and resources – especially commercial breeding.

Ms Tesha stressed the need of regularly consulting experts on how to properly go about the business.

It is also important to make sure that the eggs are hatched using special equipment instead of waiting for the chickens to hatch on their own.

Another chicken breeder, Mr Julius Moses, tells a slightly different story on breeding indigenous chickens, revealing that he is currently keeping 280 local breed hens from which he is making profit from selling eggs, chicks and chickens. A resident of Bagamoyo District in the Coast Region, Mr Moses said he started rearing chickens two years ago, initially for household use.

“One day, I went to a Trade Fair where I met with experts who opened my eyes and mind that it was both possible and profitable to raise indigenous chickens for commercial purpose,” he said.

A carpenter by profession, Mr Moses said his wife spends most of her taking care of the chickens, while he occasionally guides her in ensuring that she applies the techniques and technologies needed in successful poultry keeping at the domestic level.

“The family owns a quarter of an acre of a chicken farm at Mapinga where we currently hold some 280 chickens, from which we earn money for a living,” he said.

Revealing that he borrowed Sh700,000 to put the business on a commercial footing – albeit on a small scale for starters – Mr Moses said part of the income from the trade went into the construction of a modern poultry shed and a fence for the area in which the chickens would roam and eat food.

“The business is indeed lucrative – honestly speaking. I now breed chickens in artificial hatcheries, as this gives the chickens more time in which to lay eggs, doing so up to seven times a year instead of the ‘normal’ three times,” he said.

A livestock scientist and researcher with the Tanzania Livestock Research Institute (Taliri), Ms Mary Magonka, said indigenous chicken production in rural areas plays a significant role in contributing to the nutritional status of the people besides being a good source of income.

This is due to the advantages that local chicken breed have over others. These include – but are not limited to – their short generation interval, as well as low initial and maintenance costs compared to others.

However, she said that supplies of indigenous chicken products at the market was low, as this has continued to depend on smallholder farmers who keep only a few chickens at the household level.

A lot of initiatives by some stakeholders to commercialise indigenous chickens are taking place in the country, Ms Magonka revealed.

However, there is a shortage of quality day-old chicks because there are no grand-parent and parent-stock farms which produce pure indigenous chickens in Tanzania.

Annual per capita consumption of poultry meat and eggs in the country is estimated measly at 0.7 kilograms and 13 eggs.

The consumption is low compared to the per capita annual average 6.8kg of meat and 108 eggs recommended by the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO-UN).

Moreover, indigenous chicken ecotypes have neither been evaluated nor bred pure – and, as a result, their performance varies considerably.

Ms Magonka also said exotic breeds of chickens for meat and eggs production have been introduced in the country in recent years: heavy-feeding breeds that call for high management levels.

But, not that many farmers in rural areas can afford to keep the exotic breeds, basically on account of the inordinately high costs of production especially considering that many of the new breeds are also highly prone to assorted diseases.

According to her, Taliri conducted a study in Mpwapwa District, Dodoma Region, to evaluate four indigenous chicken breeds - ‘Horasi,’ ‘Kuchi,’ ‘Naked Neck’ and ‘Frizzled’ - in efforts to come up with grand-parent and parent stocks suited for Tanzania.

The ‘study’ chickens were managed under a semi-intensive system and handled using all the requisite managerial practices needed, including proper housing, feeding and diseases control.

During the study, different kinds of information were collected and collated to evaluate their performance. A training manual was prepared to suit farmers’ needs and training on chicken-breeding management was conducted in nine villages in the district. She revealed that the study showed that an indigenous chicken performs differently in terms of the rates of survival, hatchability and eggs production. In the event, she said, production of large number of indigenous chickens is possible if breeders adopt new technologies for rearing the birds.

The study also established that ‘Kishingo’ and ‘Horasi’ chicken breeds are the best candidates among the four for producing quality chicks.

Large quantities of these two breeds would yield enough products for dealers in chicken meat and eggs, as well as for farmers, traders, restaurants, hotels, consumers and the government.

“This method of production of the indigenous chickens would create employment for our youth and women at different stages of rearing and value addition,” she said.

“There would be production of large numbers of chickens of the same size and age at once, thus provide an opportunity for selling in bulk, something which will increase household incomes, food security and contribute to the country’s economy,” Ms Magonka said.

She also stated that the applied technologies relating to chickens rearing, feeding and disease control is obtainable through training.

This, together with the assistance of researchers and extension workers would effectively assist chicken farmers to benefit more by making the indigenous chickens sub-sector profitable. The use of new technologies in chicks rearing without their mothers from day one would increase flock numbers from 5-to-100 per household.

The technologies would also reduce chicks’ mortality rate from 80 percent to just five percent – hence increasing productivity and production.

Planned diseases control programmes would reduce indigenous chickens’ mortality – and, ultimately, increase household incomes.

According to Ms Magonka, it is imperative to promote semi-intensive systems to improve productivity and increase incomes, while policy formulators and decision makers at the local government authorities level, together with extension officers, would work very closely with chicken breeders while discouraging scavenging systems.

She further recommended that artificial chicks rearing should be encouraged to enable farmers to increase the size of their flocks; reduce chicks mortality rates – and increase number clutches per hen per year from three up to six or seven.

Commercialization of indigenous chickens being the new thrust, farmers should be enabled to keep large numbers of chickens using the knowledge provided, so as to ultimately meet the growing demand for indigenous chickens in the market.

The Taliri official also suggested establishment of private hatcheries as the best way of producing large numbers of indigenous chicks. This could be done in collaboration with the Institute

Also, it is at the same time imperative to transfer knowledge on the management and production of indigenous chickens to different stakeholders for improved productivity.