Breeding practice of indigenous village chickens, and traits and breed preferences of smallholder farmers

Abstract Background Indigenous village chickens, or (IVCs), significantly contribute to rural livelihoods. Although natural selection has a disproportionate impact on the genetic structure of IVCs, farmers have developed locally tailored breeding practices to get the most out of their flocks. Objectives Small‐scale farmers’ insights on trait breed preferences and family flock breeding practices are presented in this cross‐sectional study. Methods A cross‐sectional study was conducted in two agroecological zones using face‐to‐face individual interviews with 119 general informants. Results Farmers prefer IVCs because they are multipurpose birds. Unlike policymakers, who usually underestimate the importance of IVCs, small‐scale farmers acknowledge the coexistence of local and commercial chickens. Only 15.7% of farmers recruited homegrown cocks, whereas 47.9% outsourced breeding cocks from local markets and 36.4% from neighbours ( χ ‐squared = 15.976, df = 2, p = 0.0003395). About 49.2% of small‐scale farmers believed that consanguineous mating‐induced inbreeding has only trivial effects. High flock turnover significantly reduces inbreeding. Regardless of the low production capacity, small‐scale farmers prefer local (rank = 1.47) chickens to commercial (rank = 1.61). For cocks, fertility and growth traits were highly sought after, whereas for hens, maternal instincts and laying performance were prioritized. Compared to the highlands, the lowlands had a longer egg storage period ( t = 2.677, df = 117, p = 0.009, 95% CI: −3.7607, −0.5622). Conclusions This study documented the wisdom of small‐scale farmers and encouraged the incorporation of their insights into a sustainable genetic improvement program.