Abstract

This study was carried out to assess constraints of small scale commercial poultry farms in and around Debre Markos, Amhara region, Ethiopia. Cross sectional study was involved on the assessment of socio demographic characteristics, flock size and constraints faced by employing structured questionnaire for personal interviews. The socio demographic and flock size data were analyzed by χ2 and one way analysis of variance, respectively. The constraints faced were ranked by the respondents and the factors were analyzed by Garrett’s ranking technique. The result showed that sex, age, marital status, religion, occupation, family size, experience years, educational level had statistically significant effect (p< 0.05) on the operation of small scale poultry farms. The mean flock size was 844.3 chicks. Flock size was influenced (P< 0.05) by sex of birds rather than breed. The flock size of female chicks were significantly (P< 0.05) higher than male chicks. Among the constraints; high cost of feed, unavailability of feed and feed ingredients, unavailability of land , lack of market linkage and promotion, high cost of birds for starting business, lack of finance, lack of extension service and lack of training were listed as 1-10 ranks sequentially. Therefore, for successful poultry production and further expansion in the study area; there is a need to improve market linkage and promotion, provide training on poultry husbandry practice, provision of land and fulfilling the financial needs through facilitating credit services are among the imperatives for improving the current status of small scale commercial poultry production.

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