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Early intensification of backyard poultry systems in the tropics: a case study

Poultry production is an important way of enhancing the livelihoods of rural populations, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). As poultry production in LMICs remains dominated by backyard systems with low inputs and low outputs, considerable yield gaps exist. Intensification can i...

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Autores principales: Chaiban, C., Robinson, T. P., Fèvre, E. M., Ogola, J., Akoko, J., Gilbert, M., Vanwambeke, S. O.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cambridge University Press 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7538343/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32576312
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S175173112000110X
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author Chaiban, C.
Robinson, T. P.
Fèvre, E. M.
Ogola, J.
Akoko, J.
Gilbert, M.
Vanwambeke, S. O.
author_facet Chaiban, C.
Robinson, T. P.
Fèvre, E. M.
Ogola, J.
Akoko, J.
Gilbert, M.
Vanwambeke, S. O.
author_sort Chaiban, C.
collection PubMed
description Poultry production is an important way of enhancing the livelihoods of rural populations, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). As poultry production in LMICs remains dominated by backyard systems with low inputs and low outputs, considerable yield gaps exist. Intensification can increase poultry productivity, production and income. This process is relatively recent in LMICs compared to high-income countries. The management practices and the constraints faced by smallholders trying to scale-up their production, in the early stages of intensification, are poorly understood and described. We thus investigated the features of the small-scale commercial chicken sector in a rural area distant from major production centres. We surveyed 111 commercial chicken farms in Kenya in 2016. We targeted farms that sell the majority of their production, owning at least 50 chickens, partly or wholly confined and provided with feeds. We developed a typology of semi-intensive farms. Farms were found mainly to raise dual-purpose chickens of local and improved breeds, in association with crops and were not specialized in any single product or market. We identified four types of semi-intensive farms that were characterized based on two groups of variables related to intensification and accessibility: (i) remote, small-scale old farms, with small flocks, growing a lot of their own feed; (ii) medium-scale, old farms with a larger flock and well located in relation to markets and (iii) large-scale recently established farms, with large flocks, (iii-a) well located and buying chicks from third-party providers and (iii-b) remotely located and hatching their own chicks. The semi-intensive farms we surveyed were highly heterogeneous in terms of size, age, accessibility, management, opportunities and challenges. Farm location affects market access and influences the opportunities available to farmers, resulting in further diversity in farm profiles. The future of these semi-intensive farms could be compromised by several factors, including the competition with large-scale intensive farmers and with importations. Our study suggests that intensification trajectories in rural areas of LMICs are potentially complex, diverse and non-linear. A better understanding of intensification trajectories should, however, be based on longitudinal data. This could, in turn, help designing interventions to support small-scale farmers.
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spelling pubmed-75383432020-10-15 Early intensification of backyard poultry systems in the tropics: a case study Chaiban, C. Robinson, T. P. Fèvre, E. M. Ogola, J. Akoko, J. Gilbert, M. Vanwambeke, S. O. Animal Research Article Poultry production is an important way of enhancing the livelihoods of rural populations, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). As poultry production in LMICs remains dominated by backyard systems with low inputs and low outputs, considerable yield gaps exist. Intensification can increase poultry productivity, production and income. This process is relatively recent in LMICs compared to high-income countries. The management practices and the constraints faced by smallholders trying to scale-up their production, in the early stages of intensification, are poorly understood and described. We thus investigated the features of the small-scale commercial chicken sector in a rural area distant from major production centres. We surveyed 111 commercial chicken farms in Kenya in 2016. We targeted farms that sell the majority of their production, owning at least 50 chickens, partly or wholly confined and provided with feeds. We developed a typology of semi-intensive farms. Farms were found mainly to raise dual-purpose chickens of local and improved breeds, in association with crops and were not specialized in any single product or market. We identified four types of semi-intensive farms that were characterized based on two groups of variables related to intensification and accessibility: (i) remote, small-scale old farms, with small flocks, growing a lot of their own feed; (ii) medium-scale, old farms with a larger flock and well located in relation to markets and (iii) large-scale recently established farms, with large flocks, (iii-a) well located and buying chicks from third-party providers and (iii-b) remotely located and hatching their own chicks. The semi-intensive farms we surveyed were highly heterogeneous in terms of size, age, accessibility, management, opportunities and challenges. Farm location affects market access and influences the opportunities available to farmers, resulting in further diversity in farm profiles. The future of these semi-intensive farms could be compromised by several factors, including the competition with large-scale intensive farmers and with importations. Our study suggests that intensification trajectories in rural areas of LMICs are potentially complex, diverse and non-linear. A better understanding of intensification trajectories should, however, be based on longitudinal data. This could, in turn, help designing interventions to support small-scale farmers. Cambridge University Press 2020-11 2020-06-24 /pmc/articles/PMC7538343/ /pubmed/32576312 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S175173112000110X Text en © The Animal Consortium 2020 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Chaiban, C.
Robinson, T. P.
Fèvre, E. M.
Ogola, J.
Akoko, J.
Gilbert, M.
Vanwambeke, S. O.
Early intensification of backyard poultry systems in the tropics: a case study
title Early intensification of backyard poultry systems in the tropics: a case study
title_full Early intensification of backyard poultry systems in the tropics: a case study
title_fullStr Early intensification of backyard poultry systems in the tropics: a case study
title_full_unstemmed Early intensification of backyard poultry systems in the tropics: a case study
title_short Early intensification of backyard poultry systems in the tropics: a case study
title_sort early intensification of backyard poultry systems in the tropics: a case study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7538343/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32576312
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S175173112000110X
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