Learning

RIU Tanzania shares the learning from its poultry programme. All RIU materials are produced under a Creative Commons license.

Concept note

Concept note 1: Balancing Scale and New Knowledge Use in the Indigenous Poultry Industry: Perspectives for the Future June 2012 (PDF 240 KB) This concept demonstrates that an integrated approach that combines delivery of knowledge with a set of interventions to address other potential drivers of production scales especially access to capital, credit, essential poultry inputs, extension and advisory services, as well as markets, holds the key to stimulating the demand and adoption of new knowledge and technologies.

Policy briefs based on the experiences from the RIU indigenous poultry commercialisation project:

Policy brief 1: Taking poultry subsector to scale: A call for commercial expansion of the indigenous poultry industry April 2012 (PDF 130 KB) This policy brief advocates for commercial expansion of the indigenous poultry industry as a strategy for contributing to overall growth and development of the national poultry subsector.

Policy brief 2: Exploring contract farming as a business model for commercial expansion of the indigenous poultry subsector April 2012 (PDF 180 KB) This policy brief demonstrates that contract farming can be highly beneficial to rural poultry farmers, poultry input suppliers, the contractor and the public sector in general.

Policy brief 3: Sustaining new scales: A call for stronger institutional support for the indigenous poultry subsector April 2012 (PDF 140 KB) This policy brief discusses the need for a sound institutional support system for sustainable commercial expansion of the indigenous poultry subsector. It highlights major gaps in the existing institutional support system and demonstrates that as the indigenous poultry subsector moves to large-scale production. » Kiwahili version available on request

Policy brief 4: Putting public private partnership in the mainstream of commercial expansion of indigenous poultry industry April 2012 (PDF 200 KB) This policy recommends the promotion of innovation brokerage as a form of public private partnership in addressing the indigenous poultry industry's innovation needs and articulating the commercialisation vision and corresponding demands.

Success stories based on the experiences from the RIU indigenous poultry commercialisation project. These four-page guides are available here as printers PDF's for ease of reprinting:

Success story 1: Beyond Business as Usual: Strategies for releasing potential of the indigenous poultry subsector April 2012 (PDF 260 KB) Using champions to mobilise farmers into commercial poultry production Pushing farmers to new production scales to justify innovation Providing farmers with in-kind credit and subsidies Providing farmers with on-site practical training in modern poultry management Linking farmers with government extension ser vices Enhancing production capacity of inputs suppliers Linking farmers with inputs suppliers Running a poultry contract farming model to increase production and develop market and marketing infrastructure Providing a ready market for mature chickens » Kiwahili version available on request

Success story 2: From subsistence to commercial viability: The role of an innovation broker in transforming the rural poultry subsector April 2012 (PDF 5 MB) The primary objective of the RIU poultry project was to transform the indigenous chicken industry into a more innovative, productive and competitive rural sector through up-scaling to increase the demand for new knowledge, and through building system capacities to seek and utilize knowledge and technology. The programme therefore built technical capacity of smallholder rural farmers to take care of larger poultry flocks, boosting indigenous chicks production in local hatcheries and breeder farms, established a functional value chain and linkages among stakeholders, facilitated investment in market development, and influenced policy and regulation by the government for overall development of the subsector. » Kiwahili version available on request

Success story 3: Alleviating poverty and improving livelihoods through indigenous poultry farming April 2012 (PDF 460 KB) The livelihood of over 3,500 rural poultry producers in RIU project area has been significantly improved through indigenous poultry farming by empowering farmers to increase production scales from an average of 5-10 chickens each to 100-300 per farmer, as well as frequency of production from only 1 in 12-18 months to 3 in 12 months. » Kiwahili version available on request

Case Stories on Institutional Change April 2012 (PDF 1.6 MB) The case stories were written by RIU-Tanzania program partners in a write-shop held in Dar es Salaam and facilitated by Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) in April, 2011, published by RIU Tanzania in December 2011.

Case study: The poultry sub-sector innovation network in Tanzania Putting heads together. Agricultural innovation platforms in practice Editors: Suzanne Nederlof, Mariana Wongtschowski and Femke van der Lee Bulletin 396, KIT Publishers [ISBN 978 94 6022 1835 114] The poultry sub-sector innovation network in Tanzania (page 124) Vera Mugittu and Jwani Jube Contents: Keeping indigenous chickens has become a truly viable economic activity. The poultry industry now contributes to boosting household incomes and building business networks that include local and smallholder producers.

Guidance for keepers - version 1 Major diseases of poultry, Treatment and prevention April 2012 (PDF 950 KB) Guidance on the treatment and prevention of various poultry diseases (in Kiswahili)

Guidance for keepers - version 2 My Chicken is no longer slaughtered in the backyard A comic book of farmers' experiences on how they changed their poultry keeping practices (in Kiswahili) Publication date: to be confirmed

Building Innovation Capacities for Increased Privates Sector Investment in Agribusiness: The Case of Indigenous Poultry Sector in Tanzania Vera Mugittu PhD Thesis Supervisors: James Smith (Edinburgh University) and Norman Clark (Open University) Publication date: late 2013