| dc.description.abstract | A study of assessing farmer preferences for traits of indigenous chicken in kajjansi town council, with objectives; to characterize the indigenous chicken farming systems, to determine the different traits and preferences for the indigenous chicken traits among the farmers in the study area and to assess the challenges associated with indigenous chicken farming, was conducted in eight villages of Kitende parish du to high potential of indigenous chicken in the area. A cross-sectional research design was employed to carry out that survey on a sample of 80 households. Data was collected on farming systems, challenges faced and chicken traits; disease resistance, weight at maturity, foraging ability (ability to find own food), egg production, reproductive ability (broodiness and mothering ability), adaptability (harsh climatic conditions and predators), meat tenderness, growth rate, size (volume of the chicken), meat and egg flavor, plumage color and comb type, using a five points Likert scale containing statements such as; very important, important, moderately important, somehow important and unimportant. Each of the five statements on the Likert scale had a numerical value ranging from 1(unimportant) to 5(very important) and the data was analyzed basing on the weights each statement carries (weightedaverage mean). On average, 30 birds were reared by each household in the area, with an average of 15.8 years of experience. The majority, 46.25% of the households keep indigenous chicken for home consumption as the main reason, using extensive management system(free range), making 92.5% of the households and the scavenging mode of feeding dominates the study area with 92.5%, as the major feeding practice. Disease resistance and reproductive ability (broodiness and mothering ability) were ranked first and second preferred traits by farmers across all with weighted mean of 25.4 and 24.93. The adaptability trait (harsh climate and predator) ranked third with weighted mean of 24.07. Comb type was ranked last, followed by plumage color, with weighted mean of 7.73 and 11.40 respectively. High mortality rate posed the biggest challenge for the chicken farmers in the study area, accounting for 23%, followed by predators and diseases, 21% and 19% respectively. | en_US |
