Breeding for improved village chicken production in Ethiopia

Chickens are important for the poor and improving their production level can improve the livelihood of the village farmers, and thus serve as a stepping stone out of extreme poverty. Improvement of the production level of indigenous chicken requires a breeding program that is tailored towards local needs and circumstances. Further, it will be investigated how the breeding programme can be best embedded in supply and sales chain and linked to training and support of village farmers to ensure that breeding contributes to reduction of poverty and hunger. The research programme will build on the ongoing breeding program established in 2007 at the Debre Zeit Research Center of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR).