Counting their chickens

Esther Dens is a member of the Oxfam chicken project in Zanzui village. She has 26 chickens. [Photo credit: Oxfam]

Chicken rearing is part of an ambitious Oxfam programme to lift one million people out of poverty in rural Tanzania.

Fighting poverty in their own backyard

In rural areas of Tanzania, more than 90 per cent of households keep chickens: they are easy to keep, and require little land, maintenance or know-how. But they have rarely been seen as a resource to be exploited. Oxfam's work with local partners providing training and vaccinations is already helping farmers turn the potential in their own backyards into a valuable source of income.

Most households keep a few chickens, but rarely more than 20. Oxfam is training smallholders to manage larger broods of around 50 per household. Through the project, 231,000 chickens have already been vaccinated, resulting in healthier birds that fetch higher prices.

Stronger together

Oxfam’s training also extends to helping chicken farmers form community groups, get credit and organise their finances effectively. So far 118 groups have been set up.

Samaka Jilungile is a leading member of Zanzei's chicken group. [Photo credit: Harriet Griffin] “Oxfam trained us in chicken keeping. Then they worked with us to set up a project group,” explains Samaka Jilungile of the Zanzei village chicken group. “We’ve vaccinated nearly 800 chickens so far. Disease was a real problem before. People can see the benefit and are now copying what we are doing.”

Samaka’s group are also planning to learn from more established chicken projects in the local area.

Zanzei’s chicken group have also contributed to a fund. Members buy shares in the group and from this pot, small loans are made to members, for things such as seeds or materials to build chicken houses. There is also an emergency social welfare fund in case any of its members get into financial difficulties.

Bargaining power

Chicken on their way to market by bicycle. [Photo credit: Oxfam] Traditionally, smallholders’ options have been limited to petty informal trade. Middlemen visited individual farms, buying one or two chickens at a time at rock-bottom prices, and taking them to market by bicycle in wicker baskets. They had very little bargaining power.

Zanzei’s group are now looking to build a village chicken shed, from where they can guarantee sales of high quality chickens in much larger quantities. This will give them a competitive edge with which to negotiate more formal trading arrangements directly with established wholesalers and retailers.

“If systematically tackled, local chicken can become a key element in the fight against poverty and malnutrition here,” says local Oxfam programme officer Herman Hishamu.

Research and experience has shown us that supporting smallholders lifts communities out of poverty, and Oxfam has big ideas. Between now and 2017, Oxfam in Tanzania has an ambitious programme to help boost chicken, sisal (a plant used to make fencing and also processed to make bags and rugs), rice, and chickpea production to provide a route out of poverty for one million rural Tanzanians.