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Roosterman No. 11; January, 2012
Improving Native Chicken
T he project entitled“ Improving Household Welfare in Rakai District by Improving Indigenous Chicken Production through Programmed Hatching and Cockerel Exchange Program” ran from May 2003- April 2005 and a consolidation phase granted in 2006 for one year.
The overall objective of the project was to contribute to poverty alleviation among the subsistence farmers, especially women and orphanage farmers in 2 sub Counties of Lwanda and Ddwaniro in Rakai District.
The project was implemented by community integrated Development Initiatives( CIDI) in collaboration with Makerere University, INCHORET, and St Jude’ s, local government with funding from FARM-Africa through the Maendeleo Agriculture Technology Fund. The project targeted 400 resource poor direct beneficiaries, organized into 20 groups and trained in modern poultry management practices. CIDI worked with her partners and community farmers and have managed to improve upon local chicken through the technology of programmed hatching of local chicks, improved cockerel exchange and selective breeding and better management. The programmed hatching technology synchronizes birds to hatch on a particular day of the week. This is vital for quick multiplication of birds as well as facilitating their management. The Programmed hatching was coupled with selective breeding of indigenous chicken that were improved upon by simple cross breeding with improved commercial cockerels for meat or eggs. First, selected Indigenous hens were crossed with improved layer cocks to produce Rakai line 1( R1) that were good egg producers. These were crossed with improved commercial broiler cocks to produce an R2 line which were both good egg and meat producers. The R2 hens were crossed with selected indigenous cocks to produce an R3 line. This is expected to be a more stable bird that is resistant to diseases, yet a high yielding dualpurpose bird called the“ Rakai chicken”. The farmers were trained in good poultry husbandry practices such as brooding techniques, nutrition, housing and disease control and capacity building for farmers groups to undertake their developments. The Rakai Chicken Breeders Association( RCBA) was formed by farmers to facilitate purchase and mixing of feeds, sales of eggs, and supply of other inputs for poultry keeping at village level.
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