Determinants of Adoption and Breed Preferences of Improved Chicken Keeping Among Smallholder Farmers: Evidence From Adiyo District, Kafa Zone, Southwest Ethiopia

Improved chicken keeping enterprise has been acknowledged as an exit strategy in addressing poverty. However, adoption of smallholder farmers’ in improved chicken keeping and breed preferences has not been studied yet in the Adiyo District. Thus, this study aimed to examine the determinants influencing adoption of improved chicken keeping and the breeds preferred by smallholder farmers. A cross‐sectional research design with a mixed‐methods approach was employed. Using simple random sampling, 303 household heads were surveyed. Descriptive statistics, index ranking, and logistic regression were used to analyze the data. The results revealed that smallholder farmers preferred improved breeds such as Sasso, Koekoek, White Leghorn, Rhode Island Red, and Bovans Brown. Logistic regression indicated that adoption of improved chicken keeping was positively and significantly influenced by sex ( p = 0.005), years of schooling ( p ≤ 0.001), family size ( p = 0.002), frequency of extension contact ( p ≤ 0.001), and access to credit ( p = 0.019). The study results conclude that smallholder farmers preferred improved chicken breeds based on their different traits. Therefore, the study suggests that the concerned bodies of the district should disseminate the preferred improved chicken breeds and address the empirically identified determinants to achieve the desired changes.