Family poultry production as a food security intervention

by Dr Harry Swatson, harrys@elsenburg.com

TThe question often arises: why should poultry development practitioners promote family poultry production? The potential of family poultry production has been underrated as a vehicle in improving household socioeconomic livelihoods or food security.

As a domesticated avian species, poultry are kept for various products including meat, eggs, and feathers. The species includes chickens, guinea fowls, geese, ducks, quails, pigeons, and game birds such as pheasants. However, the term poultry is broadly used for all chickens. In countries such as South Africa, family poultry production refers to the rearing of chickens in rural settings or villages for home consumption and sociocultural and religious uses.

Family poultry production describes the various types of small-scale poultry production activities conducted in rural, urban, and peri-urban areas. It is sometimes based on free-ranging indigenous breeds such as the Ovambo, Potch Koekoek, Naked Neck, and non-descript chickens. Based on experience of working with indigenous breeds, local breeds of chickens such as the Ovambo seem well adapted to the harsh rural environmental conditions, and able to tolerate some diseases to a greater extent. They are also better able to resist poor husbandry conditions than the commercially reared breeds under similar conditions. The adult hens can weigh between 1,2 and 1,6 kg, whereas adult roosters or cocks can weigh between 1,4 and 2,6 kg. Some indigenous chicken ocks can lay four to six clutches of eight to fourteen eggs per year, depending on the breed. The breeding of chicken ocks is normally through broody hens laying eggs of about 25 to 60 g. Eggs are incubated by the “mother hen” for 21 days and have good hatching abilities ranging from 75% to 90%. The hens also demonstrate good mothering abilities. With more intensive production, some households make use of selected improved parent stock with desirable characteristics and incubate eggs artificially. Some of these characteristics will include, among others, meat quality and adaptability. Meat from village chickens has comparatively little fat, pleasant flavour, and a desirably tougher texture. In general, chickens with good mothering, scavenging, and flight abilities are selected. Chickens with the desired feather colour or pattern required for cultural purposes are also selected for breeding. Chickens with good flight abilities can escape predators and roost in trees at night.

The village chicken flocks are reared in a range of husbandry systems. This includes flocks being left to scavenge for themselves and those confined in a semi-intensive system. Unlike commercial flocks, these flocks may consist of chickens of various ages.

Supplementary feeding of village chickens in some instances encourages the chickens to return to the homestead at night to roost. Supplementary feeding is also provided to birds during periods where the natural feedstuffs such as termites, weed seeds, and leftover cereals on farmland are limited or scarce. Extra feed and a source of water is also provided when they are confined or kept in a semi-intensive rearing system.

Family poultry are often, but not always, affected seasonally by the Newcastle virus disease (NCD) and fowl cholera. The use of seasonal vaccination programmes is an efficient way of controlling or preventing the spread of NCD in community ocks.

Women normally conduct family poultry production activities in the household. They are generally responsible for the day-today care and management of the chickens. Sometimes children in the household also help with poultry husbandry activities. The gender roles in family poultry production are important to understand and consider. This will ensure effective interventions and approaches when designing and implementing family poultry development projects.

Improving rural socio-economic livelihoods and achieving household protein food security using family poultry interventions are becoming increasingly important, yet often neglected in many parts of South Africa. Future interventions and improvements in household food security should take advantage of the natural competitive advantages of family poultry production.