American Journal of Animal and Veterinary Sciences Original Research Paper Assessment of Poultry Production System in Rwanda, A Case Study in Nyagatare District 1 1 2 1 Mazimpaka Eugene, Mahoro Janvier, E.N. Tuyisenge and Ojok Lonzy 1School of Veterinary Medicine, College of Agriculture, Animal Sciences and Veterinary Medicine University of Rwanda, Rwanda 2Integrated Polytechnic Regional Collage- Rwanda Polytechnic, Rwanda Article history Abstract: A cross sectional study was conducted on 160 indigenous Received: 29-08-2019 poultry farmers in Nyagatare District to assess the effect of poultry cages Revised: 23-11-2019 on increasing poultry production in smallholder low cost village poultry Accepted: 08-01-2020 farmers in Nyagatare district. Data were collected through pre-tested semi-structured questionnaires, participatory rural appraisal, observations Corresponding Author: and interviews. Most of farmers kept the dwarf type of local chicken Mazimpaka Eugene (53.5%), night poultry confinement still rare, low cages use, scavenging School of Veterinary Medicine, causing high mortality and predation of chicks. Neighbors (50.8%), College of Agriculture, Animal markets (30%) were the mainly source of birds. Clutch size ranged from 5 Sciences and Veterinary to 18 eggs with mean of 13±2 hatchability and hen maturity age averaged Medicine University of was 7±2.1 month. Predation (42%), diseases (23%) and lack of credit Rwanda, Rwanda (20%) were the main challenges. Low Productivity due to poor nutrition, Email:
[email protected] genotype, diseases and management. Feed supplementation, selected good genotype, Cage use and disease control are recommended to improve growth rate and egg production. Keywords: Indigenous Chicken, Cages, Constraints, Poverty Alleviation, Rwanda Introduction produced annually (FAOSTAT, 2014; ECIV 4, 2016).