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Poultry project improves lives of Afghan women | FAO

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Poultry project improves lives of Afghan women | FAO

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Thousands of backyards across Afghanistan’s 22 districts are dotted with outbuildings that look like miniature homes. Some have curtains on the windows and brightly painted walls. In reality, these small structures are chicken coops that the women of the family have built themselves using local materials. Building chicken coops is the first step for participants in an FAO training project that helps women generate income through poultry production. The project combines classroom instruction with in-home training. Starting with instructions on how to build a chicken coop, the project raises the bar from a few chickens foraging in the garden to the necessary components needed to own an actual poultry enterprise. It turns out that the teaching and training model developed by FAO for the project also provides an entry point to support Afghan women in other ways.

Backyard poultry farming has been a major source of nutrition for Afghan families, with women responsible for more than 90 percent of egg and poultry meat production in the village. FAO has two poultry training projects aimed at introducing small-scale family poultry production systems, specifically targeting women. In addition to helping women improve their poultry production levels, the two projects also provide women with an entry point to other types of information and skills.

Afghan rural women are disproportionately illiterate. They rarely leave their homes, have little access to classroom education, and do not interact with their neighbors or work collectively toward common goals. By providing classroom training, these projects also provide women with opportunities to meet and collaborate with their neighbors, connect with input suppliers, and establish markets.

Poultry farming in Afghanistan must be seen in the context of a country that has endured 20 years of war and civil strife, not to mention years of drought and chronic poverty. Today, however, the approximately 28,000 chicken coops built by women involved in the two projects are clear evidence of the importance of FAO projects for rural women across Afghanistan.

Respect for tradition
The country’s social and cultural traditions dictate that only female staff be responsible for carrying out development activities with rural women, so from the outset FAO met with village elders to explain the goal of increasing poultry productivity, and then identified and trained local women to serve as mentors.

The curriculum was developed after the project conducted an assessment of village poultry farming and interviewed thousands of women to understand their needs and constraints. For example, poultry farming was previously hampered by a lack of technical knowledge, a lack of vaccines and health services, and a lack of access to inputs such as quality feed. Women would keep a few (ten or fewer) native chickens, feed them with household garbage or crop residues, and had no means to vaccinate the flocks, all of which led to high mortality rates.

The projects involve intensive weekly theoretical classroom instruction over a two-month period, held in the home of one of the participants. This is supplemented by six months of practical support, during which female trainers visit the women in their homes. In addition to giving the women a chance to meet their neighbours, socialise and collectively learn about poultry production, the classes also provide an opportunity to discuss other common household issues. As a result, the projects have the added benefit of increasing women’s knowledge of household nutrition, hygiene and health issues.

Production and marketing skills
Getting women to learn and work together has led to the formation of hundreds of village poultry producer groups, through which women can continue to increase poultry production. To ensure their poultry enterprises get off to a good start, the project provides initial inputs such as healthy chicks, feed and vaccines. Each producer group elects its own leader, who in turn receives further training in areas such as vaccination. Group leaders are now able to vaccinate other members’ chicks against Newcastle disease and other infectious diseases that previously hampered production.

The training was then extended to marketing the products, and as the women became better organized, their groups established links with input suppliers to ensure a reliable supply. As a result, 18 “supply” stores were established across the country, which continue to provide the women with the supplies they need.

In the three years of the first project, participants produced 106 metric tons of poultry meat and 21 million eggs, of which only 7.5 million were consumed by their families. This meant they had enough meat to sell, increasing their family income. And the impact continues. Today, the thousands of women participating in these projects are connected not only to their village neighbors, but also to markets and suppliers through their poultry production groups. And families across the country are benefiting from national poultry production initiatives supported by these projects.

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