Broiler production in an urban and peri-urban area of Zimbabwe

Figures & data

Table 1. Frequency and ranking of income sources for respondent broiler producer households in urban and peri-urban Marondera (n = 55).

Income source	Frequency (%)	Rank	Weighted index	χ^2 test
Poultry	100.0	1–4	0.233	–
Formal employment	58	1–3	0.158	^a
Remittances	53	1–5	0.118	^a
Informal trading	40	1–5	0.089	NS
Formal business	29	1–2	0.063	NS
Farming activities	43	1–5	0.055	^a

Notes: NS = not significant. ^aIncome source was ranked significantly different (p < 0.05) across household locations.

Figure 1. Number of respondents reporting various sources of income per household location in urban and peri-urban Marondera.

Figure 2. Responsibility and labour supply for broiler units in Marondera urban and peri-urban residential locations.

Table 2. Characteristics of urban broiler production units in urban and peri-urban Marondera (n = 55).

Characteristic	Minimum	Maximum	Median	Mean	Standard deviation
Flock size (birds/year)	150	16 000	1 000	2 772	4 170
Batch size (birds/cycle)	25	3 500	150	398	712.8
Stocking density (birds/m^2)	6.0	14.0	9.5	9.5	1.8
Mortality (%)	1.6	37	6.0	7.4	5.4
Market age (weeks)	5	8	6.0	6.4	0.7
Market weight (kg)	1.8	2.5	2.0	2.0	0.21

Table 3. Mean and standard error (SE) for characteristics of broiler production units across household location in urban Marondera.

Parameter	High density	Medium density	Low density	Plot
Flock size (birds/year)
Mean	973	969	2192	7300
SE	179	120	782	1809
Batch size (birds/cycle)
Mean	117	135	194	1208
SE	16	14	31	335
Stocking density (birds/m^2)
Mean	9.3	9.3	10.0	9.2
SE	0.47	0.56	0.51	0.50
Mortality rate (%)
Mean	7.9	8.7	6.0	6.8
SE	1.09	2.47	0.51	1.30
Market age (weeks)
Mean	6.9	6.5	6.2	6.2
SE	0.15	0.24	0.91	0.18

Table 4. Mean ranks for broiler unit characteristics across household location according to the Kruskal–Wallis test.

Parameter	High density	Medium density	Low density	Plot	χ^2 test
Number (total = 55)	17	13	13	12
Flock size	19.88	22.42	25.69	36.83	^a
Batch size	17.73	21.46	27.77	37.96	^a
Stocking density	24.31	24.81	30.00	24.79	NS
Mortality	29.88	26.50	23.58	23.88	NS
Market age	35.19	26.31	21.88	20.70	^a

Notes: NS = not significant. ^aChi-square test was significant for the parameter across household location (p < 0.05).

Table 5. Marketing aspects of broiler chickens in urban Marondera.

Marketing aspects	Number of households	Percentage of households
Broiler sales (n = 55)
Live birds	50	92
Dressed whole chickens	30	55
Cut-up chicken portions	2	4
Pricing mechanism (n = 55)
Per bird	36	65
Per kilogramme	3	5
Per bird + per kilogramme	16	29
Market arrangements (n= 55)
Open market	45	82
Market contract	16	29
Contract production	4	7
Vertical integration	3	5
Age at marketing (n = 55)
5 weeks	4	7
6 weeks	30	55
7 weeks	17	31
8 weeks	4	7

Table 6. Percentage of broiler farmers using prophylactic and therapeutic treatments against disease in urban Marondera.

Drug	Prophylactic	Therapeutic
Antibiotics	31	39
Aloe vera	10	12
Antibiotics + A. vera	6	18
Total	47	69

Figure 3. Major challenges faced by urban and peri-urban broiler producers in Marondera, Zimbabwe.