Review on Poultry Production Status and Economic Contribution of the Sector in Ethiopia

Abstract

This review focused on the poultry production status, breed/ecotype characterization, genetic improvement trends and economic value of the poultry sector in Ethiopia. The poultry production system in Ethiopia can be classified into four categories, large scale commercial, medium scale commercial, small scale commercial and village or backyard commercial production system. Chickens play an important role in the human economy, supplying food, creating wealth through job creation for the booming population. About 78.85% of the Ethiopian poultry population consists of indigenous chickens, while the remaining 21.14% consists of exotic and hybrid breeds of chickens. The indigenous chickens of Ethiopia have various names and characterized based on their ecological or main habitat, depend on qualitative characteristics. The molecular characterizations of some Ethiopian indigenous chicken ecotype were conducted. The improvements of the productivity of indigenous chicken ecotype are mainly focused on the introduction of high yielding exotic chickens. Exotic chickens were first introduced into Ethiopia in 1953. The genetic improvement through introduction of exotic breeds was failed due to less adapted to local environment conditions, poor management; lack of input and output markets; and shortage of quality feeds, vaccines and veterinary inputs. Chickens are the backbone economy base of poor resource households in Ethiopia. The economic contribution of the poultry production sector is not still proportional to the huge chicken numbers, due to the presence of many productions, reproduction and infrastructural constraints. To use full potential of poultry sector, it requires the development of proper poultry breeding program and strategy.

Keywords:breed, chicken, economy, exotic, genetic improvement, indigenous chicken, phenotypic characterization

DOI: 10.7176/FSQM/109-01

Publication date:June 30^th 2021