EMPLOYMENT, INCOME GENERATION AND SKILL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH RURAL POULTRY DEVELOPMENT
	E. B. Sonaiya
	Department of Animal Science Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Rural poultry development will require the application of available information in science and technology on a holistic approach. This includes non-formal education in savings and credits, poultry management, environmental awareness and income generation. The target groups must be women and youth. With greater dependence on local NGO and local expertise for the provision, in a participatory way, of technical input (training, orientation and information) and credit support to many small village co-operatives, both skill development and employment/ income generation can be achieved. Simple skills to be taught farmers include disease cause and effect, feed supplement choice and preparation, egg storage and incubation, chick and grower management and efficient cock exploitation for greater income. More advanced skills to be taught to development workers and small scale entrepreneurs include leadership and group management principles, ration formulation based on locally available feed resources, proper care and use of veterinary products and commercial skills for profit optimisation. As most rural families own poultry, the clientele to train (by the training NGO and GO) and to serve on a commercial basis (by the local entrepreneur) is available.

INTRODUCTION

Rural poultry production in Africa makes minimal use of land, labour and capital. The birds scavenge for most of their feed using resources no longer directly useful to man (Sonaiya, 1990a). It is a production system that can be afforded by even the poor and represents a significant part of the rural economy. In Burkina Faso, rural guinea fowl production earns about CFA 2 billion annually for the villagers from export of guinea fowls and eggs (Ouandaogo, 1990). There is an increasing role and significance for rural poultry in sustainable rural development and natural resource utilisation. For example, in order to forestall the breakdown of the intricate biological web within the Korup National Park in south western Cameroon, rearing of small livestock is one of the projects introduced (CTA, 1995).

In order to realise its potential, rural poultry requires research and development efforts in health, feed resources, genotype and socio-economics (CTA, 1990). The work of members of the African Network for Rural Poultry Development (ANRPD) in the past five years has focused on health, feed and genotype (Sonaiya, 1995). In order to sustain the rate of adoption of new technologies in production, there must be commensurate development of employment and income opportunities as well as in skill development.

SKILL DEVELOPMENT

Crop-Poultry Integration Skills

In Africa, the majority of farmers have less than l ha for cultivation. Such small farms employ the traditional slash-and-burn system of agriculture. Increased population pressures, shortage of new land to clear and shortened fallow periods are making slash-and-burn agriculture more destructive of soils. The Alternatives to Slash-and-Burn Initiative (ASB), sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and coordinated by the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), encourages the integration of crops and livestock. Examples of integrated systems involving poultry (Smith, 1990) include: Poultry/Fish; Pig/Poultry/Fish; Poultry/Fish/ Rice/Vegetables.

In Poultry/Fish systems, ducks make use of the fish pond water surface and feed in the shallow parts of the pond whilst the fish thrive on the plankton growth made possible by the droppings of ducks. In Pig/Poultry/Fish systems, the animal manure is used directly to feed the fish. In Poultry/Fish/Rice/Vegetables systems, ducks and fish are produced together until the build up of organic matter leads to decreased fish production. The fish ponds are drained and the crops planted on the empty pond beds for 2–3 planting seasons after which the ponds are filled and duck/fish production is reintroduced.

There is need to provide training in fish farming for potential integrators who may be crop farmers or poultry keepers. Such training has many advantages in relation to the sustainable management of the whole farming system. The choice of waterfowls (geese and ducks) as the poultry species to be integrated provides additional advantages. Ducks can be used to control insect pests of pigs and crops and to remove weeds from ponds. They thus combine well with pig production and fish ponds but not with some crops like rice on which they cause great damage. The ducks can be put into paddy fields after harvest to consume fallen rice grains and green weeds. Geese are excellent grazers and can be integrated with crops such as coffee, banana, and pineapple around which they clear the grass without eating the crop. They have been used to control weeds in Kiwi fields in Egypt.

Integration provides additional sources of income and makes possible a more efficient utilisation of available land, labour and time.

Poultry Production Skills

For proper development of rural poultry, there must be adequate methods of disease control, reliable supply and efficient utilisation of feed resources, significant reduction in chick and grower mortality and proper selection of breeding cocks. Rural poultry producers need to learn about cause and effect of diseases and how to prevent diseases through sanitation and flock management. The most prevalent disease is Newcastle disease; and its control is by vaccination. There is need to train farmers and intermediate staff on how to handle vaccines and their administration to the birds so as to avoid inactivation of the vaccine. The training of voluntary or entrepreneur village vaccinators has proved successful in disease control in Burkina Faso, Niger and Zaire.

To improve the diet of scavenging birds, farmers need to be able to identify the main nutrient supplied by each scavenged material. Many of these materials are by-products of human food processing, but they may need further processing like drying or fermentation. There is need to acquire the ability to recognise other materials that are not normally used for human food and to prepare them into a suitable form for poultry. The techniques of production of maggots and earthworms and of increasing digestibility through fermentation need to be transferred to farmers.

Developing skills in simple management techniques will increase the productivity of eggs and meat and reduce mortality of chicks and growers. Provision of nest boxes, clean water and shelter from predators and weather are examples of such skills. Another is the efficient use of cockerels and cocks in the flock. The main use of cocks is to fertilise the hen's eggs. The determination of proper ratio of cock to hen and of the duration of service of any particular cock can be imparted easily to rural poultry producers. When properly learnt, this knowledge can improve the rate of genetic gain in the flock and of the farmer's income.

Employment and Income Generation

Rural poultry generates income when the products are sold in the market. As most of the eggs are hatched by the hen, the main saleable product is the live bird - chicks, growers, cockerels and adult cocks and hens. The lessons to be taught here - that of maximising income and not flock size - can only be properly learnt when disease and mortality are under reasonable control. Most producers keep far more chicks, growers, cockerels and cocks than is optimal for income generation or for the scavengable feed resource base (Cummings, 1992; Roberts, 1992).

Trading in chicks and growers require certification of vaccination. This can provide an opportunity for enterprising “barefoot vets.” The trade in cockerels, cocks and spent hens does not have to be “on shank.” A link with urban and suburban fast food vendors can be profitable for rural poultry producers. This is demonstrated by the roaring trade the “grillages” in Ouagadougou are doing in roasted guinea fowls supplied from outlying villages.

With provision of nest boxes and suitable management (such as keeping hens confined until 10 AM, and removing some eggs from the clutch regularly so as to delay the onset of brooding and so increase the laying period and number of eggs laid), eggs can become available in tradeable quantities. In such situations, skills in marketing eggs have to be learned. Shell egg handling, cleaning, storing, processing, and, if necessary, grading are skills that can very easily be taught and learnt within the limits of rural poultry production.

As the volume of birds and eggs traded increase, there will be need for training in further processing. It will then become advisable to turn over the marketing to a co-operative which can provide the necessary marketing functions such as grading, packaging, marking, standardisation, storage, further processing as well as provide advisory services to rural poultry producers who are its suppliers. A great service that such a co-operative can render to its members is to teach them how to keep simple written records of inputs, outputs and profits (Table 1). This skill in record keeping is essential if money is to be borrowed to improve any aspect of production.

Table 1. Simple records for a free range poultry system*

* Average of 10 birds per flock

CONCLUSION

Rural poultry development can be a vehicle for general rural development. As employment and income (through credit and savings) are generated and skills developed by rural poultry producers who are usually women and youth, there will be a nurturing of entrepreneurs willing to invest themselves in sourcing inputs (feedstuffs, simple equipment like nest boxes, chicken wire and syringes), in marketing functions (aggregation, retailing, processing, value addition) and in providing financial services (Sonaiya, 1992).

Parallel to these entrepreneurs must be the non-profit services that non-governmental organisations (NGO) and governmental organisation (GO) provide. These services will be in development, documentation and dissemination of information on the evolving appropriate technologies. The relevant GO - agricultural schools, research institutions, universities, ministries and parastatals - must collaborate with NGO in field activities.

At the continental level, the ANRPD still appears well suited to coordinate the required training of rural poultry producers and rural poultry development workers throughout Africa (Sonaiya, 1990b; 1993). The task will be much easier with the installation of a regional programme for training, research and development in rural poultry in the FAO Regional Office in Accra.

REFERENCES

CUMMINGS, R.B. (1992) Village chicken production: problems and potential. In: Newcastle Disease in Village Chickens: Control with Thermostable Oral vaccines, (Ed Spradbrow, P.B.), ACIAR Proceedings No 39, Canberra, pp. 21–24.

CTA. (1990) Smallholder Rural Poultry Production - Requirements of Research and Development, Vol. I: Results and Technical Papers. Proc. Intl Seminar, October 9–13, 1990, Thessaloniki, pp. 5–9.

CTA. (1995) SPORE, Bimonthly bulletin of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation, No 59, October 1995, Wageningen, p.5.

OUANDAOGO, Z.C. (1990) Programme de developpement des animaux villageois (PDAV). In: Smallholder Rural Poultry Production. 9 – 13 October 1990, Thessaloniki Greece. Vol. 2 Country Reports: 27–36. CTA - Seminar Proceedings.

ROBERTS, J.A. (1992) The scavenging feed resource base in assessment of the productivity of scavenging village chickens. In: Newcastle Disease in Village Chickens: Control with Thermostable Oral vaccines, (Ed Spradbrow, P.B.), ACIAR Proceedings No 39, Canberra, pp. 29–32.

SMITH, A.J. (1990) The Tropical Agriculturalist - Poultry. CTA. MacMillan, London.

SONAIYA, E.B. (1990a) Poultry husbandry in small rural farms. Entwicklung + Ländlicher Raum 24 (4): 3–6.

SONAIYA, E.B. (1990b) The context and prospects for development of smallholder rural poultry production in Africa. I n: Smallholder Rural Poultry Production. 9– 13 October 1990, Thessaloniki, Greece. Vol 1 Results and Technical Papers: 35– 52.

SONAIYA, E.B. (1992) A development strategy for improving sustainable smallholder poultry production. Proc. X IX World's Poultry Congress, Amsterdam, 19–24 Sept. 1992. Vol.2: 684–687.

SONAIYA, E.B. (1993) Towards sustainable poultry production in Africa. In: Mack, S. (ed). Strategies for sustainable animal agriculture in developing countries. Proc. FAO Expert Consultation, Rome, Italy. 10–14 December, 1990. Pp 255–260.

SONAIYA, E.B. (1995) African Network on Rural Poultry Development: Progress Report, November 1989–June 1995. Proc. ANRPD Workshop, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, June 13–16, 1995. In Press.