Poultry innovation platform (entrepreneurship)

Coast region
(active until June 2012)

RIU Tanzania is building up a programme of poultry-related activities in partnership with a range of private sector organisations.

The programme is seeking to develop agri-business entrepreneurship capacity through poultry farming for sustainable income generation and enterprise development in the coastal region - in Kibaha, Bagamoyo, Mkuranga, Rufiji and Kisarawe districts.

From May 2009, the program has been supporting the platform by facilitating activities and experimentations to overcome identified system challenges in indigenous poultry keeping starting with Rufiji District. This will be achieved in part by offering intensive help over the critical first 30 day period.

The programme applies innovation systems principles to facilitate establishment of necessary support systems in order to provide sufficient basic poultry services, such as veterinary drugs; feed and poultry equipment; extension and business development services; and markets and marketing services. Activities focused on learning and imparting relevant skills, stimulating business endeavours and developing linkages in order to promote utilisation of new knowledge and technologies in poultry industry.

The major constrain to innovation in Coast Region is the low capacity, extensive poverty and lack of motivation by the local population to engage and invest in agri-business activities. Imparting relevant skills, stimulating business ventures and developing linkages among different stakeholders was therefore seen as an avenue that will increase demand and utilisation of new knowledge and technologies in the poultry industry and other agricultural products

This entails:

• mobilisation of farmers for entrepreneurship, self-organisation and capacity enhancement in poultry farming from feed producers and vets
• enhancing the quality and quantity of production of indigenous chicken
• organising collective marketing facility at district level through networks, groups and entrepreneurs

This works towards the aim of supporting capacity building for a system of commercial rural indigenous poultry enterprises.

Demand for improved chicken is declining in Dar es Salaam, the major market, and more people are now consuming indigenous breeds. Commercialising indigenous poultry keeping is therefore timely for meeting the unmet market demand. Commercial indigenous poultry rearing has also been widely accepted as a fast income generating scheme by rural farmers.

Up to December 2009, farmers from 86 villages have expressed interest in commercial indigenous poultry production. The ongoing entrepreneurship training for village-level indigenous chicken farmers was well received, with more than 200 farmers in two districts trained.

Local private sector supply systems for chicken feeds and veterinary services are in place in all wards in four districts of the pilot Coast Region. A newly introduced system of using livestock certificate holders to provide household advice has proven to be very useful in ensuring appropriate and timely advice is available to farmers during the first 30 days of caring for chicks.

There is an increasing demand for information on types of indigenous chicken breeds, vaccines, veterinary drugs and feeding regimes.

Household advisors are already demanding a way in which they and other practitioners can identify new and more effective vaccines and veterinary drugs that are used within the sub-sector.

RIU has negotiated with the Ministry of Livestock to use students to support poultry farmers as part of their internship to overcome some of the challenges in provision of quality and timely extension and advisory services. This support is greatly appreciated by farmers.

A privately managed livestock advisory service system, designed to increase quality and efficiency in provision of advisory and extension services for poultry farmers, has also been piloted.

A lot of urgent work and investment is needed to develop the hatchery industry for indigenous chicks to support the demand from farmers. However, business support services are in their infancy in Tanzania and building the private sector capacities without direct financing has proven to take a longer time. In view of this, we have negotiated with a financial institution, PASS (Private Agricultural Sector Support), to support suitable candidates interested in commercial hatching of indigenous chicks under the PASS loan guarantee scheme. Additionally, we are recruiting a partner to develop a national market for indigenous poultry. Over time we hope to replicate this work into other regions of Tanzania.

Regional and national level experiments to solve hatcheries and markets bottlenecks
RIU is exploring various regional and national solutions to the bottlenecks in large-scale hatchery services and markets.

RIU has met with large-scale private sector companies to explore the possibility of providing their services to indigenous chicken farmers; conducted a rapid national market appraisal to study the existing local chickens' products market; identified necessary market linkages and capacities including for value addition; and is working with the Government to establish a local chicken designated market in Dar es Salaam.

Experiments to unblock the provision of support services to poultry enterprises (hatchery, veterinary, feeds, business development services, extension services and markets)
RIU Tanzania is working with existing businesses and individuals to ensure that the platform is supported to:

• develop local capacity to produce and supply enough quality chicks
• develop appropriate and sustainable systems to supply quality veterinary services up to the ward level
• develop commercial enterprises for ensuring farmers' access to quality and affordable chicken feeds and poultry keeping equipment (like feeders, drinkers etc)
• ensure farmers' accessibility to extension and relevant Business Development Services, including training in entrepreneurship
• link farmers to well developed local chicken markets.

Through platform facilitators and other stakeholders, systems for supplying quality chicks, veterinary drugs and chicken feeds will be developed up to the ward level by identifying existing suppliers and linking them with local agents in the respective areas. Where necessary, farmers will be introduced to approaches such as 'joint input order system' (JIOS) in order to procure feeds, vaccines and other drugs at cheaper costs, especially in very remote areas where business incentives are low for agents to operate.

Through a coupon system, RIU Tanzania will demonstrate proper chicks rearing by providing subsidised chicks feed, feed stations (so that farmers can learn that chicks need special stations to protect them from drowning), essential minerals, vitamins, drugs and vaccines for one month. This is an important strategy which intends to ensure that a reasonable number of chicks grow up to maturity and allow other interventions such as marketing to take place. The coupon system has helped to initiate demand that has supported emergence of the rural supply chains.

Out-scaling
The program will out-scale lessons and experiments from the Indigenous Poultry Innovation Platform to four districts in Dodoma Region and three districts in Singida Region.

The program will work to map areas of implementation in the seven districts, conduct systems analysis and facilitate processes that will put in place systems to:

• solve problems in chicks supply capacity
• enhance local capacity to supply veterinary services and feeds
• enhance business development services
• develop reliable markers and business skills