Characterisation of family poultry production in Haa and Mongar districts of Bhutan

摘要

TheobjectiveofourstudywastocharacterizevillagechickenproductionofruralBhutan.Baselineinformationonflocksize,utilizationandmanagementfromatotalof68householdswereadministeredusingsemi-structuredquestionnaires.Thevisitedhouseholdsrearchickenforselfconsumption(83%),sourceofincome(16%)andoccasionallyformasapartofgifts.Moreover,chickensweremainlyownedbywomenindicatingpoultryproductionathouseholdlevel.Thehouseholdskeptflocksrangingfrom2to24birdsperhouseholdwithanaverageflocksizeof7.40±4.38.Majorityofthesurveyedhouseholdsprovidenightshelter(68%)however,thelossofbirdstopredatorswasrankedfirst.Although,novillagepoultryproducersformulatefeed,81%ofthemprovidelocallyavailablegrainandby-productsandcommercialfeedmainly.Theuseofextensionserviceswaspoorduetolackofawareness(71%)andpoorservices(5%).TheseresultsdemonstratedthatthereisanincreasingneedtoexploreandimplementresearchfindingstoimprovepoultryproductionthatwillcontributetoreducepovertyinBhutan-aruralphenomenon.