Farmer lists benefits of harnessing local chickens
A subsistence farmer in Yola, Adamawa State capital, has advised farmers to embrace the harnessing of local chicken for economic development and improved food production in Nigeria.
Abdulkadir Iyawa observed that poultry farmers in the country could immensely benefit from the harnessing of local stock to meet up with current challenges.
The farmer has been successfully cross-breeding the local chickens with exotic ones for years and the result has been an enhanced breed for improved meat production for his extended family. In an interview with Daily
Trust, Iyawa said: “I buy dayold broilers and feed them with maize or guinea corn offal, otherwise known as
dusa. When they reach certain stage, I allow them to graze with the local breed. And when they mature and mate with the local female, the chicks look like broilers.”
Iyawa also cross-breed female layers with local cocks, using the same method, producing similar varieties, noting that the chicks are resistant to diseases that usually infect the exotic breed. He said they are more adaptable to the environment and they give more meat than the local breed.
He extolled the economic advantage of cross-breeding,
The technique works for me and will work for anybody. So, I call on government at all levels to support the enhancement of local breeds which proves to be highly resistant and adaptable to our environment.
saying there is almost no need for medication, vaccine or incubation. The cross bred chicks neither need light nor feed at night.
“The technique works for me and will work for anybody. So, I call on government at all levels to support the enhancement of local breeds which proves to be highly resistant and adaptable to our environment,” he stated.
However, he added that he cross-bred broilers and layers raised in a local way, if allowed to feed, develop less resistance to diseases as cold and heat could easily kill them. Although, he said, they give more meat than any of the chicks produced by the other two methods.