STUDY ON CHICKEN HUSBANDRY PRACTICE AND CONSUMPTION TRADITION OF POULTRY PRODUCTS IN DEBRE MARKOS TOWN

The survey was conducted in Eastern Gojjam Zone of Amhara regional state, North Ethiopia from December to May, 2018 to assess chicken husbandry practice and consumption pattern of poultry products. A structured questionnaire related to rural poultry production was used to collect primary data. Using simple random sampling technique one hundred twenty households (thirty from each Kebeles) were included in the study. SPSS version 20 software was employed to analyze the data.  The average family size and age of respondents in the study area were 4.7persons and 37.4 years, respectively. The average cattle holdings like sheep, and chickens were found to be 1.8, 2.57and 6.63, respectively. Only 30% of chicken producers in Debre Markos Town constructed separate house for their chicken. The rest 26.7%, 20% and 23.3% shared family house, kitchen and under basket, respectively. Almost all of chicken producers in the study area supplement their chicken where 64.4% and 35.6% of the respondents provided the supplemental feed by broad casting on the ground and using feeder, respectively. Maize and kinche (10%); sorghum, wheat and kinche (13.3%); wheat and maize (60%) and wheat, maize and kinche (16.7) were the main supplementary feed. The majority respondent (88.2%) reported that the source of supplementary feed was farm produced. The water source given to chickens is pipe (83.3%), pond (16.3%). the common type of drinkers were plastic (66.6%) clay made (30 %) and wooden made (3.33%). Disease was reported to be the major problem and according to majority of the respondents, the common season of disease outbreak is wet season (73.3%). About 96.7% of the respondents consume chicken products. The average yearly egg productions of local and cross breeds were found to be 40.02 and 102.5, respectively.