The characteristics of female-owned broiler farms in Nansana Municipality, Wakiso district.

Abstract

Uganda is predominantly an agricultural based economy with aagriculture contributing 24.6% of the national GDP. Poultry is one of the important and major poverty alleviation strategies adopted by women and the small but regular income women poultry farmers derive from their enterprises contributes a lot to the strengthening of the position of women in households and communities. Therefore, this study was centered in Nansana municipality, a peri-urban suburb in Wakiso District to assess the characteristics of the women owned broiler farms. It was carried out using snowballing and transect walking where the broiler farmers were randomly selected. The study revealed that majority of the women broiler farmers are married (78%) and above 30 years of age (94%). All the farmers had attained some education and majority of them had more than 4 household members (98%) and more than 3 years of broiler rearing experience (88%). Majority of the farmers used new and improved feed forms on their farms (74%) which resulted into faster growth, less disease incidence and better feed conversion rate for their birds. Most of the farmers had available market for their birds. Most of the farmers used family labour (46%) and themselves (32%). All the women broiler farmers were smallholder farmers rearing averagely 1035 birds for approximately 6 batches a year. Farmers kept the birds for averagely 6 weeks and it took them a mean of 8 days to sell an entire batch out which indicates a satisfactory level of efficiency in feeding and marketing. The profits derived from the broiler farming enterprise had significant contribution to the welfare of the households of the women broiler farmers as they used the profits to cater for various household needs.