Year: 2008
Type: article
Abstract: One hundred and twenty-one rural poultry farmers in 12 villages in six districts of Fayoum governorate were studied through semi-structured interviews with questionnaires.The objectives of this study were to describe the existing village poultry production systems.Rural poultry farmers were identified as those who raise flocks either inside their houses or in attached enclosures, beside small farms who operated on semi-commercial basis under rural conditions.The chi-square was used to test all differences between systems except flock size data which allowed making ANOVA between systems, districts and villages between districts.Systems identified were: 1) Backyard or family poultry production system; involves two sub-systems: traditional and landless systems, and 2) semi-commercial village poultry production system.Backyard system represented about 76% of the studied farms versus 24% for the semi-commercial system.Chickens represented the highest component of the flock composition (82%) followed by pigeons and ducks (8.2% and 8 %), while geese, rabbits and turkeys represented minor percentages of 1%, 0.7% and 0.1%, respectively.Local breeds are the dominating breeds in all systems.Average flock size was 70 ± 6 and 70 ±5 birds in the traditional and landless systems, respectively, versus 1322 ± 259 birds in the semi-commercial system.Most of the farmers (58-67%) in traditional and landless systems utilize poultry products for family consumption.In the semi-commercial system, only 10% of the products are used for home consumption and the rest (90%) goes to the ordinary market channels.Poultry are usually housed in primitive coops (73-76%) in traditional and landless systems.While in the semi-commercial system, poultry were generally raised in a room inside the house (66 %) or in a small pen attached to the house (34 %).Family labour is usually used.Disease control and unavailability of feed ingredients are major problems facing poultry production in the rural sector.
Language: English
Subfield: Animal Science and Zoology
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Zero hunger
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4248326347