Determinants of chicken rearing in Uganda

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to assess the determinant of chicken rearing in Uganda. Therefore, it aimed at finding out whether age, education level, region, capital inputs, main economic activity, loan’s source, membership in a farmers group, source of agricultural information, main purpose of keeping/rearing have a significant relationship with the number of chickens reared. It used secondary data and was obtained from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, Annual Agriculture Survey 2020. The analysis was done using frequency distribution, and multi linear regression. In the results, slightly lower than a half of the households rearing chicken access loans from selfhelp groups (45.70%). Majority of households who rear chicken access transport by their own means (79.00%). Slightly more than a half of the households rearing chicken access agriculture information through radios (47.90%), slightly more than a half of the households rearing chicken attain primary level of education (56.32%). The results show that slightly higher than a half of the household heads rearing chicken where men that is 52.16%, In the multivariate analysis, the results show that age, secondary education and above secondary education, Northern region, salaried worker and main purpose for rearing significantly influence the number of chickens. The findings indicate the need to; Savings and cooperatives should be encouraged to provide more loans with low Interest rates to attract household heads to access these services. This will reduce the cost of borrowing and enable household heads access credit to invest in poultry which will boost poultry rearing. The government through National Agricultural Advisory services together with Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries should sensitize household heads through extension workers to equip them with necessary knowledge and skills to improve production of poultry and also increase on the number of poultry. Also, modernized farming methods should be adopted to provide high quality breeds by the ministries such as National Agricultural Advisory Services together with the MAAIF.