The poultry value chain interventions are designed to improve the productivity and income of poultry farmers in the Niger Delta through the adoption of good poultry practices and linkages to quality inputs (vaccines and feeds). Other intervention activities focus on improving access to market and finance to aid the growth and expansion plans of farmers.
To achieve its 2020 target of reaching 6,000 farmers with information on good poultry practices and quality inputs, PIND is utilizing the market systems development approach, driven by market actors (poultry service providers, village-level dealers, input companies, and chicken processors).
In quarter four, PIND in partnership with Zygosis Nigeria Limited, a drug manufacturing company carried out a Training of Trainers ((TOT) for 15 new village-level dealers to support the expansion of training and improved access to quality vaccines for poultry farmers. PIND also supported existing poultry service providers, village level dealers, and other market actors to train and support farmers with linkages (especially finance and market) in addition to carrying out a field monitoring activity to understand and ascertain the impact of the intervention activities on poultry farmers.
In Q4 2020, 20 trainings were carried out by nine PSPs and three VLDs reaching 1,524 (655 females) poultry farmers across the Niger Delta region. The following presents the details of the outreach: Abia 182 (104), Bayelsa 21 (13 females), Cross River 191 (80 females), Delta 373 (92 females), Edo 45 (20 females), Imo 483 (260 females), Ondo 209 (70 females) and Rivers State (20 (16 females). This sums up the total number of poultry farmers reached in 2020 to 5,133, 86% of the annual target 6000 farmers. The training covered both technical and business training using the Nigerian Agriculture Enterprise Curriculum (NAEC). The 15 new service providers would be further mentored by PIND to ensure that a good number of them become sustainable and active. (Figure 5). Out of the 1,524, a handful of 320 (21%) of them were backyard farmers, reached with vaccination by the Village level dealers, leaving 1,204 as commercial poultry farmers who were trained in GAP.
