Determinants of Rural Households’ Poultry Chicken Breeds Choice in Wolaita, Ethiopia

To achieve increased productivity in poultry chicken, households’ choice of poultry chicken breeds should be maintained according to their desirability. This study aimed at identifying determinants of rural households’ choice of poultry chicken breeds keeping in Wolaita, Ethiopia. Multistage sampling techniques were used. First, Damot Pulasa district was selected purposively because of high poultry production potential, and then simple random sampling technique was used to select five kebeles and at third stage systematic random sampling was used to select 160 rural households. Data were collected through interview schedule and analyzed using descriptive statistics and econometric regression. Result showed that 54.37% of households owned indigenous poultry chicken breed, 38% owned exotic poultry chicken breeds and 7.63% owned both indigenous and exotic poultry chicken breeds. Households attached socioeconomic, demographic and institutional factors and breed related traits to their poultry chicken breed choices. Indigenous chicken breeds were preferred in mothering ability, disease resistance, scavenging ability; taste of meat and egg traits whereas exotic poultry chicken breeds were preferred for growth rate, productivity and total eggs laid per chicken per year. In addition, Multinomial Logit model result indicated that age and education level of household head determined poultry chicken breed choice. To be effective and efficient any poultry chicken breed promotion effort in the future should consider these particular preferences of households.