Assessment and Characterization of Challenges of Poultry Backyard Production in Baidoa District, Somalia

A cross-sectional study was carried between Feb 2024 to July 2024 and employed to assess and characterize the challenges of backyard poultry production in Baidoa district, Bay region Somalia. The sampling technique of the study was multi-stage sampling technique. The researchers first selected four villages in Baidoa district purposively. Then the researcher visits each village and meets household heads, elders, and local representatives to gain permission of data collection and list of households for each village before the data collection. Then the researcher selected 25 households randomly for each village which counts 100 households. A single visit survey was employed by researchers. Primary data was collected using semi-structured questionnaire to take relevant data from the backyard poultry raisers through English in both open-ended and close-ended questions and translated to local language Somali when interviewed the households. Data collected from households were entered into an excel spread sheet then transferred to Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 22.0. The study found that the backyard raisers were 77% of female, aged between 36 to 45 years, were 81% of them illiterate. 72% of respondents had a poultry flock between 5 to 40 chickens an average of 12.5 chickens per household. The reasons for keeping poultry in backyard farms 53% of households raised poultry for family consumption. The finding that 41% of backyard poultry producers experienced the loss of 1-10 chickens in the past year, and 24% lost 11-20 chickens. Regarding the seasonality of mortality, the current study's finding that 61% of producers reported peak mortality during the winter months is consistent with previous research. The study found that diseases were the primary cause of mortality (71%), the most common diseases affecting backyard poultry farms in the Baidoa district were Newcastle disease, coccidiosis, respiratory disease, and Fowl pox. In conclusion, the findings of the study depicted that the main challenges faced by backyard poultry raisers in Baidoa district were diseases, inadequate housing, feed availability, predators, lack access to the veterinary services and limited education of most of backyard producers on proper poultry management. Infectious diseases were the primary causes of high mortality in chickens reared by households, Newcastle disease and coccidiosis were the most reported diseases.