Contribution of Local Chicken Production towards Improving Peoples Wellbeing: A Case of Peri-Urban Areas of Kinondoni District, Tanzania

Several studies have been conducted on characterization of local chicken production systems in some places of Tanzania, yet clear information is limited regarding to its contribution towards improving peoples wellbeing particularly its socio-economic importance in the country. This study therefore accessed the socio- economic importance of local chickens’ production in peri-urban areas of Kinondoni District, Dar es salaam-Tanzania. A cross sectional research design was employed. The study was conducted in peri-urban areas of Kinondoni District, Dar es Salaam Region involving three peripheral wards namely: Kibamba, Kwembe and Mabwepande, between September and October 2014. Both purposive and random sampling was used. Purposive sampling was used in selecting six streets from which local chickens were kept and random sampling was used in selecting 90 local chicken keepers (15 local chicken keepers per street) from the list provided by livestock extension officer. Data were collected using a household questionnaire survey, Focus Group Discussion (FGDs) and Key Informant interview (KI) methods. Quantitative and qualitative data were analysed using respective methods of data analysis (SPSS).The study findings found that, the local chicken contributes to peri-urban household’s wellbeing as 92.2% of all the respondents spent some amounts of local chicken earnings to buy food. This shows that local chicken keeping contributes to improving food security at the households of the local chicken keepers.Some households used local chicken for gift giving, rituals and detection of time. Education level, initial capital, experience of local chicken keeping, rearing systems, accessibility to extension services and constraints were significantly influencing production of the local chicken (p<0.05). The researchers conclude that local chicken production improves socio-economies of peri-urban households of Kinondoni District. The study recommends that various stakeholders including the local governments should put more emphasis on promoting local chicken production as it contributes to the smallholder household’s socio-economies.