A. H. Ramlah

Village chicken production under the free-range and semi-intensive system is still the most popular and viable production systems for rural households with little inputs. This system of production will supplement the protein intake of the rural households as well as additional income when the needs arise. The trends towards utilising crossbreds of the indigenous chickens that are suitable for free-range rearing will be the scenario in the future.

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The Asian countries contribution towards the world's chicken meat and egg production is about 33% and 50%, respectively. The production is dominated by China (47% for meat and 63% for eggs). The production of poultry meat and eggs in this region is dominated by development in relatively few countries. The total production from China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia made up of 75% of the region's chicken meat output and nearly 83% of the eggs output (Anonymous, 1998). The production of the poultry meat and eggs are dominated by the commercial lines of broilers and layers managed under the intensive systems. Although, the commercial production of poultry utilising the efficient commercial lines of broilers and layers has become very successful and highly competitive in these South-east Asian countries, the backyard chicken production in rural areas would still continue to contribute towards the domestic chicken meat consumption. In Malaysia, the contribution is very small but a large contribution of village based production occurs in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

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In most of the South-east Asian countries, poultry keeping has been practised for centuries as a backyard operation among rural families. The practice of keeping chickens which are mainly the native or indigenous chicken and their crosses under the scavenging system of backyard farming is still popular in the rural areas. The move towards the semi-intensive system, whereby the birds are kept in enclosed areas with a shed for shelter and provided with food and scratches had been quite popular for a medium scale production in most South-east Asian countries such as Malaysia. Rarely would one find village fowl being kept under the intensive system such as the deep litter or caged system.

In Malaysia, the standing population of indigenous chicken in 1994 is estimated to be around 10 million birds which comprised of 3% of the total standing population, and the commercial broilers about 300 million birds or 97% of the total standing population. The 1994 annual production of village chicken was around 15,000 tonnes of meat and 250 million eggs compared to the commercial broilers of 450,000 tonnes poultry meat (Seri Masran, 1996). In peninsular Malaysia, it is estimated that over three-quarters of a million rural families still keep village fowl under the backyard production in flocks of 15-20 birds of various ages. This practice of keeping the indigenous fowl is still widespread in south-east Asia (Aini, 1990).

In Indonesia, figures for 1994 showed that village or native fowl population is about 26% (230 million) to the total poultry population (877 million chickens) while about 68% (592 million) are the commercial broilers and 6% (55 million) are culled layers (Soejoedano, 1996). In the Philippines, backyard poultry production is the predominant production system. The 1995 estimated total poultry population is 95.5 billion birds, and about 70% are under the backyard rearing system while the remaining 30% are reared under commercial farming. The scenario in Thailand would be similar to Malaysia where commercial broiler production is predominant, but there are about 4.6 million backyard chicken farming units in Thailand consisting of about 5-50 chickens per unit for home consumption and petty sales (Morathop and Mahantachaisakul, 1996).

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The traditional system of keeping the village fowl has been the backyard system whereby the birds are let loose to scavenge for food, with housing provided at night for the semi-intensive and free-range system. A study by Ramlah and Shukor (1987) showed that rural farmers in Malaysia mainly practised the free-range system (82.1%), followed by the semi-intensive system (15.4%) and the intensive cage system (1%). Over the years many semi-intensive farms have cropped up, and a few of them rearing as many as 10,000 birds. The intensive rearing of village chickens, on a similar system as those practised for the commercial broilers, in deep litter system house or the slatted floor system, has not been attempted on a larger scale for commercial production. Farmers or people in the rural areas that rear large numbers of village chickens under the semi-intensive system normally have a ready market that pays a premium price for the bird. Another practice of keeping chickens is associated with the dwellings of the rural folks. As most of the houses in the rural areas are built on stilts, some farmers usually kept the chickens enclosed during the night under their houses and sometimes also built an extension usually at the side or rear of the house made out of wooden materials, wire netting and thatched or zinc roof for keeping the birds.

In most South-east Asian countries, village fowls are generally kept to supplement the family with income and protein diet. These birds which are normally the indigenous stock are raised on the free-range system scavenging for food comprising mainly of fallen grains, worms, insects, table and kitchen scraps as well as local weeds and grasses. In Malaysia, feed supplements are sometimes provided such as wheat, paddy, rice bran, corn, coconut cake and tapioca. Chickens of various ages under both the free-range and semi-intensive systems are sometimes fed twice a day, early in the morning before the birds are released and in the evening when they come back to roost.

The breeding stocks are normally obtained from home hatching whereby the mating of males and females take place naturally and randomly, since all ages of both sexes are allowed to roam freely. Flock size varied between 20 to 50 birds with ages of between day-old to about three years. Each farmer would kept about 1-2 adult males and 3-4 adult females in their flock for breeding purposes. Hens would lay eggs in clutches of about 8-16 eggs per clutch before sitting on the eggs for hatching. Chicks are normally brooded by the broody hen or brooded in a box or cage and then the brood is left to roam for food following the mother hen after about 40-60 days until they can look after themselves. The survival rate of these chicks are low compared to chicks that are kept under the semi-intensive system.

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In Malaysia, the indigenous village chicken is a dual-purpose type reared for both meat and eggs, a small body size with variable body conformations and physical characteristics and mainly reared on the semi-intensive or free-range systems. These birds are the descendants of the south-east Asian jungle fowl (Gallus bankiva) through natural mating and selection. The village fowls, normally found kept in the rural and suburban areas, are no longer a pure breed. They are the result of crossbreeding with various exotic stocks introduced into the country. Numerous crossbreds of these indigenous fowls can be seen reared extensively in almost every village and suburban areas.

Since the village chicken is a popular breed to be kept on the free-range and semi-intensive system for rural people as well as in the suburban areas, a number of studies had been carried out in Malaysia on the performance of the village fowls in term of liveweight as reported by several authors (Table 1) and egg production (Table 2).

Table 1: Reports of liveweights of village fowl in Malaysia reared under semi-intensive and intensive systems
Source: Ramlah (1996a) except *

Table 2: Reports of egg production of village fowl in Malaysia reared under semi-intensive and intensive systems
Source: Ramlah (1996a)

These birds are normally marketed at 15-20 weeks with a liveweight of about 1.2 - 1.5kg. A great variability was observed which could be attributed to the different varieties of village chickens and the feeds. In term of egg production, not many studies had been carried out. The village chicken had a very low egg production, with system of rearing influencing the level of production which could be attributed to the strain or varieties of birds and the level of nutrition that the birds received.

Since the popularity of keeping chickens by the rural and suburban households had been the village chickens, studies had also been carried out on the potential of keeping the crossbreds that resemble the physical characteristics of the village chickens which would have a better performance in term of growth and egg production. These studies are reported in Table 3. Although the reports showed that these birds had been kept mostly under the intensive system, its suitability for the free-range and semi-intensive system cannot be ignored. These crossbreds can achieve liveweight equivalent to that of commercial broilers at about 15-16 weeks. Most of the studies had been recent, thus no studies had been reported on the egg production of these crossbreds.

Table 3: Reports of liveweights of village fowl crosses in Malaysia reared under semi-intensive and intensive systems
* village fowl (Black red variety) X French label chicken
** village fowl (Red variety) X French label chicken
*** village fowl (Red variety) X Taiwan country chicken

All the studies reported in Tables 1, 2 and 3 normally practised the vaccination programme that had been recommended for the commercial broilers in particular the vaccination against Newcastle Disease.

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Village chicken production using mainly the crossbreds of the indigenous chickens would be popular in rural households, particularly in Malaysia where there is an emerging trend of consumer awareness towards organically grown chickens. The rearing of village chickens on the traditional feeds would be attractive for the farmers because of minimal inputs that are required. The scale of production can be small to medium, i.e. from 100-1,000 birds per farmer.

Abd. Khalid, M.S. (1997): Effects of energy and protein levels on the abdominal fat of two strains of kampung chicken crosses. Proc. 19th MSAP Ann. Conf. Johor Bahru, pp. 126-127.

Abenes, M.V. (1996): Philippines: Country Report. Proceedings of the Ninth Asean Seminar on Poultry Diseases and Their Control: Poultry husbandry, hygiene and drug therapy, pp. 30-38.

Aini, I. (1990): Indigenous chicken production in South East Asia. World's Poultry Science Journal 46:51-57.

Anonymous (1998): Far East Asia Focus: Asian growth to slow down. Poultry International 37 (3): 14-15.

Engku Azahan, E.A. and Noraziah, M. (1996): Efficiency of feed utilisation for growth in the improved kampung chicken. Proc. Silver Jubilee MSAP Conference, Kuching, pp. 275-276.

Morathop, S and Mahantachaisakul, C. (1996): Thailand: Country Report. Proceedings of the Ninth Asean Seminar on Poultry Diseases and Their Control: Poultry husbandry, hygiene and drug therapy, pp. 39-48.

Noraziah, M. and Engku Azahan, E.A. (1995): Growth performance of kampung chicken crosses. Proc. 17th MSAP Ann. Conf. Penang, pp. 165-166.

Noraziah, M. and Engku Azahan, E.A. (1997): Rearing kampung chicken crosses semi-intensively. Proc. 19th MSAP Ann. Conf. Johor Bahru, pp. 110-111.

Ramlah, A.H. (1996a): Performance of village fowl in Malaysia. World's Poultry Science Journal 52:75-79.

Ramlah. A.H. (1996b): Poultry husbandry and hygiene in Malaysia. Proceedings of the Ninth Asean Seminar on Poultry Diseases and Their Control: Poultry husbandry, hygiene and drug therapy, pp. 59-73.

Ramlah, A.H. and H. Kassim (1992): Production performance of village chicken. In: Proceedings of the National IRPA Seminar (Eds. Ho, Y.W, M.K. Vidyadaran, N. Abdullah, M.R. Jainudeen and A.R. Bahaman) Vol. 2, pp. 496-497.

Seri Masran, M.S. (1996): Malaysia: Country Report. Proceedings of the Ninth Asean Seminar on Poultry Diseases and Their Control: Poultry husbandry, hygiene and drug therapy, pp. 23-29.

Soejoedano, R (1996): Industry Profile: Indonesia. Poultry International 35 (9): 26-29.

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