Backyard Chicken Production Skills of Rural Women in Yucatán, México

Aims: The study was conducted to identify the skills level of backyard chicken production practices used by rural women in Yucatan, Mexico.

Study Design: A questionnaire was used to collect data from the chicken owners, the dependent variable in this study was the skills level of chicken production practices.

Place and Duration of Study: 204 women raising backyard chickens were drawn in the four selected villages in the Peninsula of Yucatán, between May and August 2013.

Methodology: A structured questionnaires were designed to measure the skills level of women regarding their chicken production practices (feeding, housing, health care, management and purpose of production). This approach was analytical study among the studied villages.

Results: The results showed that the majority of the respondents (76%) had medium and low skill levels regarding production practices, meanwhile, a small proportion of women can be categorized in the high skill level (24%). There were no significant differences (P = .59) for production practices among the villages. Findings also showed that low economical sources, high feed cost, diseases, unavailability of training programs, unawareness by ethno-veterinary treatments, insufficient of technologies /inputs and extension services, in that order, were the most severe constraints affecting production practices.

Conclusion: The study concluded the medium skills level of backyard chicken production practices for rural women in the selected villages.