Dear Colleagues,
I am delighted to have an opportunity to crystallise some ideas about
family poultry production on the topic of:

“Strategic  interventions for  Family Poultry - What  can  be   achieved  through  Research&   Development activities”. The moderators have given three sub-headings:

1. The contribution of research to the development of family poultry production systems. In my view research needs to be refocused from specialised areas such as breeds, feed ingredients and special vaccines to project planning on a risk assessment basis (more below).

2. The development for livelihoods through family poultry - cost and opportunities. The suitability of family poultry development to improve family nutrition and income seems self-evident but a one-size-fits-all approach is inappropriate. We need a planning approach that recognises the constraints of each situation and seeks to apply known technology in appropriate ways to the situation.

3. Competing or complementing commercial poultry production systems. We should recognise that the potential market is the ultimate limiting factor in any family poultry development project plan. Competing directly with low cost commercial production is fatal. A niche market has to be found.

We all come to the discussion with personal experience that may be biased. I declare my bias and I recognise that it may influence my views. My bias may result from my experience as a poultry veterinarian (giving me a focus on disease as a major constraint) with some exposure to only a limited number of family poultry development projects in Fiji, Solomon Islands, China, Indonesia, Tanzania and Kenya plus a personal attempt to run guinea-fowl on a scavenging basis in rural Australia.

I have also had some experience in risk assessment, activity budgeting and in project modelling. These are all tools that have a place in proposing future family poultry projects.

These projects compete with other development assistance projects for funds so should be undertaken using all the relevant planning tools. Any decision about funding such projects involve judgements on multi-disciplinary matters including technical issues as well as socio-economic matters.  Efforts should be made to find good evidence on which to base decisions but it has to be accepted that a level of consensus is usually the best that can be achieved.

I have seen sustainable subsistence poultry activities and have seen some well intentioned interventions in such situations fail for various reasons. I still remain optimistic about possible benefits from interventions intended to benefit poor rural and peri-urban families by assisting them to use the poultry resource to improve family nutrition and income.

I am dismayed at resources still being used to research indigenous breeds (not the responsibility of development aid funds), local feed ingredients (whose composition is known and thus their nutritional value can be assessed) and specialised vaccines (when effective commercial vaccines are available).

I propose an approach that recognises the biological constraint factors, or hazards, whose control has led to the success of the commercial poultry industry. We must seek ways to apply these control techniques to the extremely varied family poultry situations throughout the developing world.

The hazards overcome by the commercial industry include poor genetic capability, malnutrition, disease, inadequate shelter, shortage of credit and seasonality of production.

If these constrains are not identified, assessed and managed appropriately it can be assumed that they may operate to the detriment of the project and result in the inevitable failure of yet another poultry project.

The belief that the limited scavenging resource, with its inevitable low bird-survival rate, can be improved without a cost to the family-based producer applying an appropriate level of poultry technology is probably a well-intentioned fantasy.

A risk management approach leads us to assess the likelihood of these elements being a factor in any proposed family poultry development project and to consider appropriate technology to combat them.

I have found many family poultry development project planners reluctant to apply even a simple budgeting process to their task, so for me to hope for a risk assessment approach to project planning may also be over-optimistic. The alternative seems to me to continue to see poultry projects fail.

Paul Gilchrist BVSc FANZCVS




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Paul Gilchrist
02 97121909
0415467072


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