Hello Brigitte,
There is lots of experience from the Department of Animal Science, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife in Nigeria, in the housing of indigenous chicken in floor pens indoors. For my Masters project, We practically collected various strains of indigenous chickens from several regions of Nigeria as foundation stock from which we derived what we called ecotypes (two distinct ecotypes) based on growth performance. These birds were confined and fed commercial feed through several generations to allow us study the growth characteristics of the chicks produced from the foundation stock as well as the eqg production and quality. Two journal papers, one world congress paper and one MSc Thesis were published on this. See below.
So yes it is feasible and perhaps economical to confine indigenous chickens and feed them commercial feed as supplement especially if one has the labour and land to allow them out into a fenced area at night. This depends of course on a ready market and people willing to pay a good price for the birds at the end. It is also feasible and highly economical for the small scale rearing of fast growing commercial strains also with feed supplementation and access to outdoors and this has been practiced by many people in rural areas especially targeting key festivals in an all in all out system. It is key to stress that where I have seen this done, the people have been careful never to mix the indigenous and the commercial birds in the same pen. Smart I would say.
I quite like this model and it would be interesting to know more about the work going on in Swaziland
Dr. Victor E. Olori
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Tel +44 (0) 131 3331056
-----Original Message-----
From: Forum on family poultry
production in developing countries
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Brigitte Bagnol
Sent: 13 June 2012 16:23
To:
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Subject: Re: E-conference -
Consultation électronique
Dear colleagues,
I wonder if there are experiences of confining indigenous chickens (in a chickens house at night and in a fenced area during the day)? This of course implies feeding them mainly with commercial feed. Is it possible to envisage to raise indigenous chicken in an intensive system or should farmers be encouraged to raise exotic breed if they want to go intensive?
This question is related to topic 3 Competing or complementing commercial poultry production systems and to policy issues also.
In Swaziland, the Ministry of Agriculture is pushing the production of indigenous chickens (Swazi breed) by promoting special markets in the capital of the regions, supporting the creation of indigenous poultry groups/associations, training farmers in improved management practices. The MofA is also supporting a multiplication centre for farmers who want to increase their flock or start to raise chickens to be able to buy 4 weeks old chickens.
All the best
Bagnol Brigitte
• Research Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental and Population Health, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, USA
• Visiting Senior
Lecturer, Department of Anthropology.
The Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg, South Africa
• Researcher associated with the International Rural Poultry Centre (IRPC), KYEEMA Foundation, Australia, www.kyeemafoundation.org
On 11 Jun 2012, at 11:55 AM, DeBesi, Giacomo (AGAS) wrote:
(Version française ci-dessous)
Dear Participants,
It is now time to turn our attention to the themes
of week 3 which are:
1. Women empowerment through sustainable family poultry development.
· Can development
of family poultry make an important contribution to women’s empowerment?
· What are the
requirements and constraints for contribution of family poultry to women
empowerment?
· Can family
poultry development have negative impacts for women, for example by increasing
their workload?
· Have past
projects proved a positive impact of family poultry development on
women’s empowerment?
· While promoting
family poultry what should be done to avoid discrimination based on gender,
caste, and class?
2. Influencing policy for family poultry.
· What should be
the purpose of family poultry policies?
· Is policy
changing a prerequisite to steer family poultry development towards meeting the
needs of the poor?
· What can
policies do to support family poultry?
· How much importance
has been given to family poultry in the current poultry development policies
and what needs to be done to influence that?
· Have family
poultry development projects influenced policy, if so, why and how?
· Have needs and
priorities of the commercial poultry industry negative impacts on the policies
for family poultry?
· What arguments
and facts are required to achieve pro family poultry policies?
· Who are the
stakeholders that should work for smallholder friendly poultry policies?
· What can
international organizations and institutions do to achieve FP friendly policies?
· Is there a role
of local Governments in promoting family poultry?
3. The future contribution of INFPD and other networks to family poultry
development.
· What has been
achieved by INFPD? What has worked and what not?
· What should be
the future priorities of INFPD?
· What actions
could INFPD take to further contribute to policy change?
· What actions
could INFPD take to further contribute to improving technical knowledge?
· Should INFPD
collaborate more actively with other institutions or networks?
The official closing date of the e-conference is
scheduled for Friday, 15 June 2012. Since this is the last week of the
e-conference, we invite all colleagues who have not yet had the opportunity to
address the topics of week 1 and 2 to send their contributions now.
Best regards,
Professor Dr. E. B. Sonaiya and Mr. G. De’ Besi
Moderators
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