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<p>Indigenous chickens serve as a source of food security, nutrition, and income for smallholder farmers in Ethiopia, accounting for more than 78% of the national poultry flock. However, their productivity remains low due to poor management and a lack of sustainable breeding programs. Understanding smallholder farmers’ breeding practices and trait preferences for indigenous chickens and incorporating in to designing breeding programs is essential for the sustainable development of smallholder poultry systems. This study was conducted to identify smallholder farmers’ breeding practices and trait preferences for indigenous chickens in the East Wollega zone, Oromia region, Ethiopia. The data were collected through structured questionnaires from 270 randomly selected households from lowland, midland, and highland agroecological zones. Descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, and ANOVA were employed to analyze socioeconomic, breeding practices, and flock size data, while an exploded logit model was used to analyze farmers’ ranked preferences in SAS software. The results showed significant agroecological variation in flock size and composition (p &lt; 0.001), with larger flocks and higher proportions of hens in the midland area compared to highland and lowland agroecologies. Most of the households involved uncontrolled mating systems (66.3%), with majority of farmers (63.7%) relying on home-raised breeding cocks. Egg and live chicken sales were consistently ranked as the primary production objectives across agroecologies (p &lt; 0.0001), highlighting the strong market orientation of smallholder poultry systems. Body size and disease resistance were the most preferred traits for cock selection, whereas egg number was the dominant criterion for hen selection in all agroecologies. Secondary trait preferences, including disease resistance in highland areas and maternal ability in midland and lowland agroecologies, reflected adaptive responses to local environmental and management conditions. These findings underscore that farmers utilize rational, context-specific selection strategies to balance productivity with resilience traits. Therefore, sustainable genetic improvement strategies must transition from generic interventions to participatory breeding programs that formalize these local preferences and enhance the sustainability of indigenous chicken improvement strategies in East Wollega and similar smallholder contexts.</p>

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Identification of smallholder farmers’ breeding practices and trait preferences for indigenous chicken: inputs to design a sustainable breeding program

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年5月18日

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  • Gutu Fekede,
  • Kefelegn Kebede,
  • Tadelle Dessie,
  • Wondimeneh Esatu,
  • Mengistu Urge

摘要

Indigenous chickens serve as a source of food security, nutrition, and income for smallholder farmers in Ethiopia, accounting for more than 78% of the national poultry flock. However, their productivity remains low due to poor management and a lack of sustainable breeding programs. Understanding smallholder farmers’ breeding practices and trait preferences for indigenous chickens and incorporating in to designing breeding programs is essential for the sustainable development of smallholder poultry systems. This study was conducted to identify smallholder farmers’ breeding practices and trait preferences for indigenous chickens in the East Wollega zone, Oromia region, Ethiopia. The data were collected through structured questionnaires from 270 randomly selected households from lowland, midland, and highland agroecological zones. Descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, and ANOVA were employed to analyze socioeconomic, breeding practices, and flock size data, while an exploded logit model was used to analyze farmers’ ranked preferences in SAS software. The results showed significant agroecological variation in flock size and composition (p < 0.001), with larger flocks and higher proportions of hens in the midland area compared to highland and lowland agroecologies. Most of the households involved uncontrolled mating systems (66.3%), with majority of farmers (63.7%) relying on home-raised breeding cocks. Egg and live chicken sales were consistently ranked as the primary production objectives across agroecologies (p < 0.0001), highlighting the strong market orientation of smallholder poultry systems. Body size and disease resistance were the most preferred traits for cock selection, whereas egg number was the dominant criterion for hen selection in all agroecologies. Secondary trait preferences, including disease resistance in highland areas and maternal ability in midland and lowland agroecologies, reflected adaptive responses to local environmental and management conditions. These findings underscore that farmers utilize rational, context-specific selection strategies to balance productivity with resilience traits. Therefore, sustainable genetic improvement strategies must transition from generic interventions to participatory breeding programs that formalize these local preferences and enhance the sustainability of indigenous chicken improvement strategies in East Wollega and similar smallholder contexts.