Marketing, consumption and their determinants in village poultry production in four states of Ethiopia

Context It is widely recognised that village poultry play important roles nutritionally, economically and socio-culturally in developing countries such as Ethiopia where the sector makes up the largest portion of the national poultry meat and egg production. The importance of socioeconomic environment for improving the contribution of village poultry to household income and diets is receiving little attention in research and development. Aims The present study examined whether and to what extent household, flock, institutional and infrastructural factors enable or constrain village poultry marketing and consumption. Methods The results of the study are based on analysis of data drawn from a cross-sectional survey of 5004 households conducted in four regions of Ethiopia. On the basis of the type of dependent variable, probit and ordinary least squares regression models and marginal effects were used to determine whether and how much the aforementioned factors affect household involvement in marketing or consumption of village poultry. Key results Flock size per household highly significantly and positively affected poultry selling. Majority of the households (82%) sold their poultry primarily for covering planned household expenses. Male-headed households had a lower likelihood of selling poultry and an increased mean number of birds consumed, than did female-headed households. A lower probability of selling poultry was associated with an increasing household-asset ownership and an increasing distance to a market town. Participation in training increased poultry consumption per household. Conclusions Our empirical results showed that factors related to household characteristics, flock size, infrastructure and institutional services affected marketing and consumption of household poultry. Household attributes are important to identify and target the right groups for poultry research and development, and market infrastructure and institutional services have to be developed for improving opportunities of smallholders to better benefit from poultry marketing or consumption. Implications Finally, along with technical efforts to increase production, sustainability and nutritional and economic impacts could be improved if research and development interventions were to holistically take into account the socioeconomic and institutional context under which poultry-producing households operate.