Consumers’ Preference Attributes For Tropically Adapted Improved Chicken In Njombe And Morogoro Regions, Tanzania

ABSTRACT

Generally in Tanzania consumers prefer local chickens and pay premium prices compared to other chickens due to the perception that local chicken tastes better, nutritious and organically raised. However, productivity levels of local chicken are low resulting to low outputs hence limiting their potential for commercialization. For that reason, the African Chicken Genetic Gain program has recently introduced tropically adapted improved chicken including Sasso, Kuroiler and Black austrolop strains which have higher productivity levels in terms of growth rate and eggs production than local chicken to enhance income generation to rural farmers. The introduction or development of any new product in the market needs to take into account consumer‟s preference analysis because in determining the demand for a product it is useful to think of consumers not as purchasing the product, but its attributes that provide utility. Therefore, this study sought to analyze consumer preference attributes for tropically adapted improved chicken in Morogoro and Njombe regions. Multistage sampling technique was employed to select 120 respondents in Morogoro and Njombe regions. Results of Kendall coefficient indicated that consumers were in agreement by 67% on attributes of tropically adapted improved chickens which influence purchasing and consumption decision. The attributes were, weight of chicken, price of chicken, sex of chicken, fat content, tenderness, plumage colour and taste of chickens in that order. Results of hedonic price model indicated that large sized chicken, male chicken, tender, low fat chicken and mixed colour chicken significantly received premium prices. Monthly income, household size and marital status significantly influenced the willingness to pay for the chicken. Farmers in the study regions and beyond should strategize their production practices by adopting keeping of the improved strains by enhancing preferred attributes so as to benefit from high revenue realized from premium prices for these attributes.