Exploring how Poultry Ownership Benefits Smallholder Farmer Households

Decision-maker’s challenge

Can owning dual-purpose chickens – which are meant to gain weight faster and produce more eggs than local chicken breeds – improve the income, nutrition, and level of women’s empowerment in rural smallholder farmer households? IDinsight’s impact evaluations, in coordination with private-sector poultry companies in Nigeria and Tanzania, will help answer this question and determine whether and how the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Poultry Foundation continue to invest in dual-purpose chickens as an anti-poverty tool. 

Impact opportunity

In most of the developing world, poultry farming can contribute significantly to rural household incomes through the sale of eggs and chickens. Many international development initiatives are therefore increasingly encouraging poultry-rearing as an approach to poverty reduction. Further, given poultry-rearing tends to be a female activity in many countries, there is growing interest in learning whether improved access to poultry can enhance nutrition and women’s empowerment outcomes.

Dual-purpose chickens, newer breeds being promoted across many African countries, have the potential to gain weight quickly and produce more eggs while requiring fewer resources than local breeds. However, many communities have not yet widely adopted dual-purpose chicken breeds. IDinsight is evaluating a private-sector approach to increasing ownership of dual-purpose chickens in rural Nigeria and Tanzania. The results of IDinsight’s evaluations will provide needed evidence to inform potential investments to expand access to dual-purpose chickens across sub-Saharan Africa.

Our approach

IDinsight is conducting impact evaluations on the effect of dual-purpose chicken ownership on household income, nutrition, and women’s empowerment, in partnership with poultry companies in Nigeria and Tanzania. IDinsight also conducted a process evaluation that generated recommendations on customer experiences and operations for an additional poultry company in Tanzania.

We are also conducting an additional study in Nigeria to measure the average egg production that smallholder farmers can expect from dual-purpose chickens over time, which will help determine the profits that farmers can earn from an investment in an individual chicken. 

The results

Project is ongoing.