African Chicken Genetic Gains

A platform for testing, delivering, and continuously improving tropically-adapted chickens for productivity growth in sub-

Saharan Africa

ATONU Planning MeetingKampala, Uganda

October 30th, 2015

ACGG Overview

Funders: BMGF, Livestock and Fish CRP, Koepon Foundation, and Project Partners-$14.4 M USD

Dates: 5 years; November 2014-October 2019

Partners:• ILRI Lead• Tanzania

Tanzania Livestock Research Institute (TALIRI) Sokoine University of Agriculture

• EthiopiaEthiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR)Haramya University

• Nigeria Federal University of Agriculture in Abeokuta, Nigeria Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

• Cross-country ILRI, Wageningen University, the Netherlands, PICO East Africa

Opportunity-Why Poultry?

High potential for women’s empowerment

Chicken leads the global meat trade with 40% of

exports to Africa and the Middle East

Egg and chicken meat are often the highest

value agricultural product globally

High potential for contributing to dietary

diversity globally

Low-productivity but high potential for

growth across a range of systems

Income + Nutrition =Pathway out of Poverty

Background –Past attempts of improvement and the way forward

• Emulate the poultry industry found in the developed world

• Most of these historical attempts at intensive, grain-driven, poultry production in Africa typically failed

• Cockerel exchange, pullet exchange and ‘hatchable’ eggs distribution programs

• These programs again generally failed to achieve sustained impact and were not successful in transforming productivity

• Chicken production has historically presented tremendous growth opportunities in Africa BUT needs an innovative approach

• “If we could establish a sustainable productivity program of chicken improvement, then we could produce more meat and eggs that would lead to more food, less poverty and more income”

What has happened in the past?

What are we doing different?

ACGG Five Pillars of Change

1. High-producing genetics that is well-adapted to low-input production systems;

2. Farmer preferred breeds of chickens;

3. Innovation platforms for developing solutions across the value chain;

4. Public-private partnership for improvement, multiplication, and delivery;

5. Women at the center to ensure success.

Vision

The vision of this program is to catalyze public-private partnerships for increasing smallholder chicken production and productivity growth as a pathway out of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.

Our Vision

Impact Beneficiaries

How do they benefit?

Who benefits?

• Income• Nutrition• Capital accumulation

• The poor: Targeting individuals living on <$2 / day -2.6 billion people in the world

• Smallholders: Targeting individuals with low flock sizes but a high percent of income from poultry

• Women:70% of poultry keepers are women

Photo: www.impatientoptimist.com

Theory of Change

Farmer-preferred Genetics

Improved Semi-scavenging

Management Practices

Market Access

Women Empower

ment

Increased Production and

ProductivityImproved

Dietary Diversity

Increased Income

Improved Livelihoods

Improved Dietary

Diversity

Theory of Change

PPPsInnovation Platform

Focus on “improvement”, not just breeding! “Empowering” not “Restricting” all the actors

Outcomes

1. Stakeholders (governments, private sector, other development partners) have data-driven and culturally-relevant insights on the types of chickens that poor farmers, especially women, prefer (e.g., specific performance and phenotypic traits) across multiple agro-ecological and cultural systems of the project countries

2. Through functioning public private partnerships (targeting at least two operating partnerships per country), smallholders have access to their preferred breeds that produce at least 200% more than existing local breeds, with significantly reduced mortality risks due to proper brooding and pre-vaccination

3. Demonstrated and well-publicized data showing that the adoption of the proven chicken genotypes indeed leads to significantly increased production, productivity, income, and household consumption among smallholder communities that adopt the technology

4. Increased empowerment of women smallholder farmers in the chicken value chain to be seen across rural communities

5. A functioning multi-country network of public-private partnerships for long-term chicken genetic improvement that has both the strategy and capacity to use modern tools to drive accelerated genetic gains and to deliver more productive, farmer-preferred breeds

Why (only) Genetics?Identifying and delivering appropriate livestock genetics in developing economies is complex, but appropriate genetics can deliver substantial and long-lasting benefits

As seen in the developed world, huge gains can be unlocked through genetics

Fully benefiting from breed improvement requires a systems approach, a context-specific strategy, understanding of the socio-economic landscape, and consideration of the existing resources.

Be a catalyst and pull factor for improving the wider system –triggering input supply and better marketing in a developing chicken value chain

Unlike many other types of intervention, benefits can span generations.

however…

and…

Therefore, we believe

genetics can…

This sustainable genetic improvement program can be the primary driver for change –GET the Genetics right and it

will serve as a systemic pull factor

Where are we?

• October/November:1) Finalizing our 3 country, 3,626 farmer baseline study; and 2) recruiting MSc and PhD students

• November: 1) Finalize on-station Infrastructure; 2) on-going farmer sensitization; and 3) baseline analysis

• December: 1) Import chicken breeds; and 2) launch the on-station testing in 3 countries; and 3) finalize the on-farm protocol

• January: 1) On-station testing; 2) 2nd program management meeting and SIAC review; and 3) community innovation platform meetings

• February: 1) 2nd national innovation platform meetings; 2) finalizing brooding and distribution networks; and 3) on-going beneficiary sensitization

• March: 1) Launch of on-farm, longitudinal testing

ACGG Organogram

ILRI LiveGene

ACGG

WuRACGG ETH

(EIAR)

PI and Co-PI

NPC

SNCs (Oromia, Amhara, Tigray, Addis Ababa, Southern, HU)

NPIC (National Project Implementation

Committee)

ACGG NGR (FUNAAB, AOU, ABU)

PI and Co-PI

NPC

SNCs (Humid Forest, Derived Savanna, Guinea

Savanna, Sudan Savanna, Sahel Savanna, Midaltitude)

ACGG TAN (SUA, TALIRI)

PI and Co-PI

NPC

SNCs (Southern H & SH, Southern HL,

Central SA, Eastern SH, Lake)

PICO-EA

SIAC

Partners

more productive chickens for Africa’s smallholders

http://africacgg.net

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http://acgg.wikispaces.com/

Thank You!