Chicken Case Study

1. Introduction

Chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Jungle fowl. It is one of the most common and widespread domestic animals throughout the globe. Domestic chicken is the first populous livestock species with an estimate of 19 billion, three per person in the world (The Economist, 2011). Poultry contributes about 30% (Permin and Pedersen, 2000) of all animal protein consumed in the world. Moreover, they share 34.6% of global livestock meat, of which chicken species account 88% of the global poultry meat and 30.1% of global animal meat (FAO, 2012a). Village poultry make a significant contribution to poverty alleviation and household food security in many developing countries (Alders RG, Pym RAE, 2009). About 1.5 billion chickens are raised in Africa, 80% of them belonging to local chicken populations and found in the rural and peri-urban areas, where birds are raised in small numbers by the traditional extensive or semi-intensive, low-input–low-output systems (Sonaiya, 1997; Gueye, 1998). Indigenous chickens are considered to make a significant contribution to food security and the economical sustainability of rural households (Gueye, 2002; Aboe P and etal, 2006; and Faustin, et al, 2010).

Chickens are the easiest livestock

On top of these merits, village poultry can provide the start of the owner climbing the “livestock ladders’’ leading to other livestock species such as goats and cattle or serve as “transport (transitional) bridge” from small livestock to large livestock species production (Dolberg, 2003). For instance, the beneficiaries of a chicken project supported by SIDA purchased 250 goats from the proceeds of chickens in 2010 (BONEPWA,