Assessment of Poultry Production System in Rwanda, A Case Study in Nyagatare District

A cross sectional study was conducted on 160 indigenous poultry farmers in Nyagatare District to assess the effect of poultry cages on increasing poultry production in smallholder low cost village poultry farmers in Nyagatare district. Data were collected through pre-tested semi-structured questionnaires, participatory rural appraisal, observations and interviews. Most of farmers kept the dwarf type of local chicken (53.5%), night poultry confinement still rare, low cages use, scavenging causing high mortality and predation of chicks. Neighbors (50.8%), markets (30%) were the mainly source of birds. Clutch size ranged from 5 to 18 eggs with mean of 13±2 hatchability and hen maturity age averaged was 7±2.1 month. Predation (42%), diseases (23%) and lack of credit (20%) were the main challenges. Low Productivity due to poor nutrition, genotype, diseases and management. Feed supplementation, selected good genotype, Cage use and disease control are recommended to improve growth rate and egg production.