Management Prospects and Challenges of Small-scale Commercial Poultry Production in Arsi and East-Showa Zones, Ethiopia: A Review

Poultry farming primarily targets production of eggs and meat from indigenous or improved chickens. To enhance production of such products, it is indispensable to analyze production practices, identify constraints and take appropriate interventions. The study was conducted to assess management practices and constraints of small-scale commercial poultry farming. The data was collected using semi-structured questionnaire comprising lists of constraints from 132-layer, 56-pulletand 33-broiler producing farms through interviews with farm managers. The farm managers were asked to rank constraints and then the data was analyzed using Garrett ranking and index ranking techniques. Most farms were established as sole-proprietorship (55.2%), small-and-medium-scale enterprises (37.1%) and cooperatives (7.7%). The mean flock sizes of layer, broiler and pullet farms were 790, 1153 and 953 chickens, respectively. The top five constraints of commercial poultry farms were high feed cost, diseases, feed shortage, finance shortageand high chicken cost. Additionally, poor technical skill, market, infrastructure, service qualityand biosecurity scheme and lack of chicken supply were among the limiting factors. Target-full participatory interventions by actors through extension of knowledge and technology to the grass-root level is of paramount importance to address the constraints and ensure productivity.