Better lives through livestock
Chicken Value Chains in Africa:
Some Lessons
Presented at THE LEADERSHIP FOR AGRICULTURE
PLATFORM
PEER TO PEER LEARNING EVENT
Side Event of AGRF 2022
Lemigo Hotel, Kigali, Rwanda.
Monday, 5 September 2022

2
Outline
• The production system/environment in Africa
• Analysis of opportunities and challenges
• Areas identified as needing attention for the
transformation of Chicken Value Chains in Africa.
o Feeds
o Genetics
o Health and Biosecurity
o Markets
o Stakeholders
o Capacity
o Finance
o Enabling environment (especially policy and legislation)
• Concluding remarks

3
Chicken Value Chains in Africa
The FAO classified poultry production into 4 sectors.
• Sector 1: Industrial system with high-level biosecurity (e.g. farms that are
part of an integrated enterprise)
• Sector 2: Commercial poultry production system with moderate to high-
level biosecurity
• Sector 3: Commercial poultry production system with low to medium-level
biosecurity
• Sector 4: Free range or backyard or smallholder production with minimal
biosecurity.
Most (70-90%) chicken farmers in Africa are smallholders in sectors 3 and 4. Value
can be added in any of the 4 FAO sectors as long as VC actors are profit-seeking

4
Smallholder Chicken Production system in Africa
Smallholder chicken production is part of the socio-cultural makeup
and “balanced” farming system in Africa
Characterized as:
Low input-output system
Dominated by low-producing chicken
genotypes
1
Poultry is owned and managed by household
women; income from the sub-sector
managed by women
2
Lack of effective long-term genetic
improvement, multiplication and
delivery systems
3

Role of smallholder farmers in poultry production
5
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0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
%
live
in
poverty
% village chickens
Relationship between poverty and % village chickens

6
Context - demographics
• More than 70% of rural Africa involved in chicken farming
• Domestic animals supply 30% of total human requirements
for food and agriculture
• Way more in some countries e.g. Ethiopia!
• Rapidly growing livestock markets create income-generating
opportunities, jobs
• However, population growth, and scarcity of resources (land, water
etc) – does not allow business as usual

7
Context – opportunities and challenges
Opportunities
• Food revolution:
• Increased demand for food of animal origin
• Growing chicken and chicken product markets
• Expanding post-production value addition
• Increased regional trade opportunities (high-value products)
• Creative use of existing & emerging sciences and technology
• e.g. Mobile telephony, gene editing
• Food demand impacts: ‘Will ‘foraging chicken’ be more
competitive?
• Use and “develop” nonconventional feed resources

High potential for
women’s
empowerment
Chicken production
expanded by 56%
in the last decade,
growing from 5.9
mmt to 9.2 mmt in
2018, and is
expected to reach
12.3 mmt by 2028
Egg and
chicken meat
are often the
highest value
agricultural
product
globally
High potential
for contributing to
demand, income,
dietary diversity at
HH level and
globally
Low-input-output
system but with high
potential for improved
productivity across a
range of systems
Pathway out of
poverty and
equitable
improvement of
livelihoods
Income
Employment
Nutrition
8
Opportunity–smallholder chicken production system in
Africa

9
Context – opportunities and challenges
Challenges
• Rapid changes in production systems, markets, policy, other institutions
• Supermarket revolution
• Creates longer value chain, and higher food quality standards (also
employment opportunity!)
• Climate change: demand for adapted genetics
• New institutions and institutional arrangements are required (&
emerging!)
• NGOs, CBOs, private service providers e.g. agrovets), PPPs, etc
• Most SSA countries are net importers of poultry products

10
Feeds
Goal: Provision of feed in the right quantity and quality at the
best cost
Reality
• More than 70 % of the cost of production
• Competition with humans for grains (even by-products)
• No quality standards or weak enforcement of legislation
• Under performance of breeds (Broiler 2Kg in 36 days visa vis in 3
months)

11
Feeds (cont…)
Suggestions:
• Produce feed maize and oil seeds
• Land and resources
• Private sector investment
• Non-conventional feed resource development and use
• E.g. Cassava pills; BSF, other Agro-industrial by-products

12
Genetics
Goal: Get the genetics right for different production environments
Reality
• Lack of appropriate breeds - with evidence-driven options for
different contexts
• Low-producing chicken genotypes in sectors 3 and 4
o Lack of effective long-term genetic improvement, multiplication, and delivery
systems
– Farmers wait three months to get their order
• Inefficient use of genetics in sectors 1 and 2 in Africa
o Poor housing, low-quality feed, poor health management

13
Genetics
Suggestions:
• Appropriate, well-characterized genetics made available
• Identify, source, and test for farmer and consumer preferences of
breeds/products
• Put in place a robust regulatory system –public sector
• Setup sustainable improvement, multiplication, and delivery system –
private sector
o Partner with multinational genetics companies
• Long term: Develop own genetics- PPP arrangement
o E.g. Sir lines

Body weight of test breeds
in different agroecological zones in Nigeria
—
Humid forest agro-ecology
favors better growth of test
breeds than Derived
Savanna and Sudan
Savanna
—
Performance of test breeds for
body weight at 20 weeks vary
across different agro-ecologies
Noiler weighed more at week 20
in all agro-ecologies followed by
Kuroiler and Sasso
14

Productivity Gain:
 Increase in production and productivity level from indigenous to tropically adapted and
more productive chicken breeds
200-300%
in body weight
100-160%
in egg production
 SL Tanzania, AKM G Tanzania, Amo Farms in Nigeria and Ethiochicken in Ethiopia

16
Health and biosecurity
Goal: Provision of effective vaccines and medicines at a market
cost to farmers
Reality
• Very high chick mortality in Sectors 3 and 4
• Vaccine efficacy is poor
• Limited vaccine accessibility in sector 4
• Poor biosecurity
• Health service delivery –public sector
• Limited involvement of the private sector

17
Health and biosecurity
Suggestions:
• Robust regulatory system-public sector
• Management and Delivery of vaccines and medicines – private
sector
• Appropriate Doses per Vial for serving the needs of Sector 4
• E.g. Ethiopia Newcastle disease vaccine story

18
Markets
Goal: Robust and accessible market information system and
infrastructure (ICT)
Reality:
• Producers suffer from market access
• Uncertain/inconsistent demand for chicken products &
products are not affordable by the poor
• In some SSA countries chicken becomes food for the rich
o the egg->mandazi story

19
Markets
Suggestions:
• Build robust market information system – benefit from Mobile
telephony penetration in the continent
• Value addition and packaging
• Egg powder in Nigeria
• Expand/strengthen between countries and regions trade

Research and development efforts
–From Farmer first approach to Market first approach
Market-Led Approach
How can smallholder
farmers raise their
productivity?
How can marketing
constraints be
overcome?
How are supply chains
and marketing
systems changing?
1 2 3
Farmer-first approach (PUSH)
What market
opportunities exist?
What is required to
supply this market?
Can smallholder
farmers profitably
participate in the
value chain?
1 2 3
Market-first approach (PULL)

21
Stakeholders
Goal: Partner to build a sustainable, evidence-led, productive,
remunerative and sustainable business that equitably creates
wealth for poultry keepers and other actors in the value chain
Reality:
• Lots of pull and push in the system
• lacking Honesty in the input and service delivery
• Poor quality DOCs, feed and health service
• Very lose regulatory system –public sector

22
Capacity
Goal: Skilled manpower and physical capacity in the different
areas of chicken production
Reality:
• Limited skilled manpower in the continent
• The majority of managers and technicians in the sector are from
South Africa or India
• limited numbers of reliable suppliers of breeding stocks in the
continent

23
Finance
Goal: Innovative and remunerative financing to local private
sector operators
Reality:
• In availability of reliable and flexible financing system

24
Enabling environment (especially policy and legislation)
Goal: Creating enabling environment for value chain actors and
for the industry to operate smoothly
Suggestions:
• Legislations: Clear standards for product certification to
improve competitiveness (Quality control, e.g. HACCP (a
management system in which food safety is addressed through
the analysis and control of biological, chemical, and physical
hazards from raw material and products) is key)
• Investment packages (e.g. flower in Ethiopia)
• VAT for feed (e.g. Tanzania)

Private
Company
SHF
BU
Dual Purpose
Breeder
SHF SHF
SHF
SHF
BU BU BU
SHF SHF
Finance
Institution
Aggregators/Local Markets/Partial Buy-back
• Day-Old Chicks
• Feed
• Vaccine
• Technical Support
• Women Empowerment
• Parent Stock
SME Lending
• 4 week-old
brooded chicks
Own Consumption
• 3 month - males (2.3 kg)
• 6 month - Eggs
DATA Collection
and Analysis
School feeding

26
Concluding remarks
• If we act and act together the continent can be self-sufficient in chicken products, create more jobs
and wealth
• Use old science in new ways and places
• Match interventions to production system and markets: understand systems
and markets
• Researchers and development workers should act as catalysts and facilitators
providing options to farmers to make decisions based on scientific evidence
• Need for policymakers, and financers to think not out of the box BUT without
box

“A talent for following the ways of
yesterday is not sufficient to improve
the world of today”
King Wu-Ling, 307 BC

Thank you
Photo credit: ILRI - Camille Hanotte