A Dissertation 2019
The perception of farmers towards any innovation can be influenced by many factors
including level of education, location, livelihood activity, gender, and age. This study was
conducted in Morogoro and Singida regions, Tanzania where improved chickens were
introduced by the African Chicken Genetic Gain (ACGG) project. In this study, four
villages from Ifaraka town, Morogoro region (Kibaoni, Kikwawila, Lipangalala and
Lumemo villages) and four villages from Iramba district, Singida region (Mampanta,
Kinambeu, Idodyandole and Heka villages) were purposely selected as beneficiaries of
ACGG project. In these villages, two strains of tropically improved strains (Sasso and
Kuroiler) were issued for testing performance under a moderate input farmer-managed
production system.
A total of 120 respondents were purposely selected for interviews based on their
engagement in the chicken value chain either as a primary producer, consumer, or traders.
The study involved 20 ACGG households, 20 none-ACGG households, 12 Consumers and
8 chicken traders from each region. For intervened households, each farmer was given 25
pre-brooded and vaccinated birds of either Sasso or Kuroiler. The survey questionnaire
was pretested and necessary adjustments made before conducting the survey. For these
reasons, the study was carried out in the two regions of Tanzania to obtain the extent to
which the improved chicken strains will be preferred and to explain the implications to the
local chicken conservation. The study involved collecting data through field survey and
Focus Group Discussions (FGD), with each participants ranging from 5 to 10 individuals.
The information collected through a single visit formal survey to obtain the perception of
communities on improved versus local chicken strains concerning productivity,
adaptability, and local chicken biodiversity maintenance, breeding objectives and trait preferences of the chicken keepers. In the case of the breeding objectives and trait
preferences of the chicken keepers, a Non-parametric test was used to generate descriptive
statistics, while, content analysis was used for information gathered during FGDs. The
generated mean ranks were assessed using Kendall’s Coefficient of concordance (W) to
test for the agreement of the ranking between the respondents on the data obtained. The
descriptive statistics including frequencies, means, and standard deviations were used to
explain the perception of the respondents. Besides, a multiple regression analysis was
performed to find out the relationship between dependent and independent variables
explaining the perception of communities. Furthermore, a Likert scale was used to gauge
the perception of respondents.
The results indicated that both local and improved chickens were mainly kept for revenue
(1.28) and home consumption (1.84) from both regions. There was little variability in a
ranking of the trait preferences by the chicken producers from individual respondents as
well as from focus group discussions. Local chickens were preferred due to their higher
adaptability (2.00) and brooding behavior (2.13), while egg production (1.45) and meat
yields (1.80) were the major traits preferred for the households rearing improved chicken
in both regions. The findings underscored breeding objectives and trait preferences as
crucial for the development of holistic and sustainable genetic improvement of local and
improved chickens in rural areas. The average number of flock sizes were found to be
13.46±11.255 and 20.84±11.245 chicken per household for the improved and local
chicken strains respectively. During FGDs respondents
reported that the management
cost of improved chicken strains was higher than that of the local strains although the
former had better performance hence farmers, were ready to increase the flock. More than
50% of the respondents reported that the adaptability of local strain was better than that of
the improved strains. More than 80% of the respondents reported that productivity in terms of eggs and meat yield of improved chicken strains is higher than that of local
chicken strains. More than 60% of the respondents did not see if the introduction of
improved chicken strains will lead to the erosion of local chicken strains. Measured at
breed level, the desire to increase the number of improved chickens was significant at
(p<0.05). Hence, most of the respondents (56.8%) and during FGDs wanted to increase
the number of improved chicken because of the better performance and high prices offered
at the markets.
Generally, this study concluded that adaptation and reproductive traits seem to be the most
important attributes of local chicken, while the production traits, including the number of
eggs and meat yield, are considered to be more relevant for those keeping improved
chicken strains. For sustainability and economic empowerment of rural farmers, breeding
objectives should take into account the breeding goals and preferences of farmers, traders,
and consumers. Also, farmers need to change to make improvements from the traditional
poultry-keeping system through the adoption of improved systems and or acquiring new
highly productive and adaptive strains for farmers to realize profits. Respondents were not
worried about endangering the local chicken biodiversity if the improved chicken strains
will be highly distributed. Some respondents underscored that local chickens will still be
kept by most of the farmers due to their important characteristics including brooding
behavior, tolerance to diseases and stress hence, an opportunity for up-scaling.