COMMERCIAL LAYING HEN PRODUCTION AND EGG VALUE CHAIN MAPPING IN NORTHERN ETH

Background: In Ethiopia, commercial farms have increased in farm size, and the majority of the large-scale poultry farms are concentrated around Addis Ababa the capital city of Ethiopia. Objective: To assess poultry production, map value chains and identify major production challenges in Northern Ethiopia. Methodology: A multistage sampling technique along with a proportionate sample size determination method was used to fix the sample size. Accordingly, 147, 109 and 64 poultry producers were selected from semi-intensive, small-scale, and medium-scale farms, respectively. Nine focus group discussions comprising relevant stakeholders were conducted. Result: The earlier age at first egg-laying in weeks was reported as 16.7 ± 0.93 in the medium-scale production system. A high laying percentage of 85.47 ± 5.01 was recorded in the medium-scale and the highest mortality 23.5 ± 8.8 was in semi-intensive. The price of eggs varied by about +38% in November 2019/2020 and negatively changed price by -22% in May 2019/2020. In a ranking exercise, feed cost, feed quality, product marketing, disease, predator, and lack of information and training were ranked top five. Further risk factors were ranked, accordingly, lack of vaccine, poor biosecurity measures, and management were ranked as major causes. Implication: The government and private sector should promote improving the feeding habit of the community and improve the management practice. Conclusion: The high price of feed ingredients, limited access to veterinary services, poor market linkages in the value chain, poor feeding habits, and poor extension services aggravated by a lack of awareness of producers were the most important challenges affecting commercial production.