A study on traditional pigeon farming and Breedin practices in gamawa L.G.A, bauchi state

A study was conducted among 315 randomly selected pigeon farmers across different locations in Gamawa L.G.A to investigate their traditional breeding methods, breeding objectives and traits preferences for selecting breeding stocks. The result obtained showed that majority (75.485%) of the farmers kept the local pigeon breeds over the cross breds (20.70%) and exotic breeds (3.82%). Most of the farmers (42.99%) sourced their breeding stocks from within their flocks over other sources. Most (35.67%) of the farmers kept pigeon for hobby and for meat (32.48%) followed by other reasons. Most of the farmers accorded a higher priority for qualitative trait (Body colour) in selecting breeding males (38.85%) and females (31.55%) over other traits. However, some degrees of emphasis (16.88% and16.24%) were given for productive traits (hatchability and quality of squabs respectively) in selecting breeding females. Majority (80.92%) of the farmers used cross breeding technique to genetically upgrade their birds, despite the fact that most of them (72.205%) had no knowledge of inbreeding. There was a very significant (p<0.001) difference between the study locations across all the variables. The farmer’s indigenous breeding strategies should be harnessed in designing a breeding programme in the study area for better result and sustainability.