Abstract:
Local chicken production presents an avenue to empower women socio-economically, culturally and nutritionally since women play a central role in the management, marketing and generate revenue from the sector. A study was hence conducted to determine the contribution of local chicken production to women empowerment in Gweri sub-county Soroti district from February to May with peculiar emphasis on the economic contribution of chicken towards women wellbeing and constraints faced by women involved in local chicken production.
During the study in data was collected at a single point and time with a purposive sampling procedure in which only 25 local chicken keeping women from each of the 4 sampled parishes of Gweri Sub County were interviewed. A structured questionnaire was used for collecting all relevant information related to the study. Data was analyzed using SPSS statistical package and chi tests at a 95% confidence level were performed on the data which was presented inform of tables, pie charts and bar graphs.
The study found out that most of the women involved in local chicken keeping in Gweri sub county had attained formal education (36%) and mainly farmers who earned above 200,000 ug shs per month (4.1%) mainly from other agricultural activities (66%) and 56% of the households kept less than 10 birds. Flock sizes significantly (P<0.05) affected the monthly incomes from chicken, education levels had a significant relationship (P<0.05) with the constraints faced during local chicken rearing and the challenges faced during marketing of local chicken were significantly affected (P<0.05) by who made the decisions regarding sales. Diseases (43%) and price fluctuation (37%) were the chief bottle necks in the rearing and marketing of the indigenous chicken.
The findings indicate that contribution of local chicken to the economies of women is insignificant, flock sizes are a big determinant of the revenue fetched from local chicken and education levels and decision making greatly implicates the challenges women face during rearing and marketing local chicken of which diseases and price fluctuation are of utmost concern. It was thus recommended that Education in all forms be provided to the local chicken keeping women in Gweri Sub County, markets be structured and restocking to increase flock sizes be emphasizing and done so that local chicken keeping women can reap big from the activity.
