The Contribution of Poultry keeping to Household Poverty Reduction

The aim of this study was to examine the contribution of poultry keeping to household poverty reduction in Ilemela municipality. This study assessed the contribution of poultry keeping to socio-economic purposes to the people of Ilemela. The study employed purposive sampling technique to select sample of 100 respondents, where 85 were farmers and 15 were experts (extension officers) and street leaders who were aware of residents who kept poultry at their areas. Primary data were collected by using questionnaires and interviews. Data from questionnaires were analyzed by Excel. Descriptive statistics namely frequencies and percentage were computed. Spearman Regression and Regression coefficients were used to determine relationship between two variables and give outcomes of -0.2 and -0.14 respectively. This showed that there were negative relationship between poultry kept and the returns at a given area. Moreover, the study observed that there are different challenges facing farmers like diseases, feeds and theft. But the main challenge was diseases like Newcastle Disease (ND), cholera, typhoid and calcium deficiency. The study showed that there was a large number of women who were participating in poultry keeping than men. Apart from that, products from poultry were highly demanded by the society and people were highly invited to venture into poultry keeping. The study focused on poultry farming and its effectiveness in Ilemela District Council from some selected wards. However, other studies may be performed in the same direction in other industries such as education, health and others. Keywords: Poultry keeping, Poultry, Poverty, Alleviation