Determinants of participation in exotic chicken production in Busia District, Uganda

Abstract

Exotic chicken play a very big role in the livelihoods of many individuals by providing the much needed protein in form of meat and eggs as well as being a source of income. The objective of this study was to assess the determinants of participation in exotic chicken production in Busia District. The assessment was made on a sample of 100 chicken farmers that was selected using two stage cluster sampling from the selected farms. The socio-economic characteristics, access to market and farm inputs were analyzed using STATA version 12.0 so as to determine factors influencing the farmers in Busia District to participate in exotic chicken production. The results revealed that heating the poultry was a significant predictor of participation in exotic chicken production (P<0.05). Majority of the exotic chicken farmers (90.2%) heat their poultry. This ideally means that heating is a determinant of participation in exotic chicken production. Market distance was also found to significantly predict the participation in exotic chicken production. Findings show that majority of the exotic poultry farmers (51.2%) have their market distance over 7 km, majority of the participants in exotic poultry production in the study area are males (73.2%), use preventive medicine (95.1%), heat their poultry (90.2%), have information on market or consumers (87.8%), have marketing of their products not well planned (79.3%), have other businesses other than Poultry production (51.2%), have no difficulty in searching for new market or consumers (59.8%).The highest level of education attended by the poultry farmers is tertiary (40.2%). The study therefore concludes that most of the exotic chicken, most especially the chicks require warmth to provide a conducive environment for better growth. This is seen from the highest percentage of farmers that heat their poultry. The average market distance for majority of the farmers was found to be over 7 kilometers. The government is therefore recommended to improve access to market by establishing market centres with storage facilities for both live birds and chicken products. The exotic chicken producer organizations are also encouraged to avail free vaccines occasionally to these farmers so as boost the marketable output of the poultry products.