Poultry In Ethiopia

Ethiopia has an estimated of 51.35 million chickens with the indigenous chicken of non-descriptive breeds accounting 96.9%, hybrid chicken 0.54% and exotic breeds 2.56% which are distributed in different agro-ecological zones of Ethiopia (CSA 2013). Their distribution indicates their adaptive potential to different environmental conditions, diseases and other stresses (Halima, 2007). Rural household poultry is an affordable source of animal protein and sources of family income. Poultry is a source of self-reliance for women since, poultry and egg sales are decided by women (Aklilu et al 2007) both of which provide women with an immediate income to meet household expenses and sources of food.

Domestic chicken plays a significant

The possible sources of protein for poultry are the seed legumes. Seed legumes are characterized by protein that contains high level of lysine and low level of methionine (Akanji et al 2012). Many locally available source of protein and energy like grain legumes, contribute in the supply of poultry industry in Africa (Akanji et al 2012). Soya bean mean and other oil crop byproducts like noug cake are major sources of protein in poultry diet. Inadequate production and location specific make it not to be easily accessible and expensive. One of the important mitigation strategies to alleviate such problem is the use of alternative source of protein like cowpea (Vigna unguiculata). Cowpea varieties are temperature and drought tolerant crop and requiring low input costs and are well adapted to the arid and semi-arid agro-ecologies. Cowpea as well as other peas can be excellent sources of dietary protein in animal nutrition (Igbansa and Guenter 1997), especially where animal proteins are in short supply and expensive (Wiryawan and Dingle 1995). The nutrient and energy concentrations of Cowpea varieties compare with those of soyabean varieties, with similar amino acid profiles (Ravindran and Blair 1992), and are often less expensive. The chemical composition of cowpea, such as crude protein is 24.8 % (Akande and Faliyi 2010) and the crude protein of soybean is