By Collins Wanjala and Damaris Musembi
Introduction
Indigenous poultry, also known as local breeds of chicken, provide sustainable opportunity for job creation and rural development because they are more resistant to diseases, harsh climatic conditions and require less maintenance. Indigenous poultry farming accounts for 75 per cent of employment in poultry farming in rural households. Its value chain plays key roles in Kenya’s agricultural sector, and thus the fourth Medium Term Plan of Kenya (MTPIV) of the Kenya Vision 2030 outlines strategies to enhance productivity and commercialization through the value chain approach. This value chain comprises production, processing, marketing and distribution. However, despite its potential, production and commercialization remains untapped, specifically regarding job creation.
Unlocking this value chain would create job opportunities for actors such as farmers, processors, marketers and distributors, and veterinaries, feed manufacturers and suppliers. However, policy implementation barriers, market inaccessibility and low productivity are key constraints. This blog explores the potential of indigenous poultry value chain in job creation through productivity and commercialization.
Status of Job Creation in the Indigenous Poultry Value Chain Progress in the poultry
Creating jobs through production of chicken and eggs market
In Kenya, indigenous poultry are reared in free-range systems. It accounts for 80 per cent of the poultry population, estimated at 25.8 million while offering various job opportunities for respective actors. The value of marketed chicken and eggs grew from Ksh 9.2 billion to Ksh 10.8 billion between the period 2019-2022, though this remained below the Ksh 12 billion in 2018 (Figure 1). This translates to income generation and job opportunities in poultry farming.
Figure 1: Marketed agricultural production (chicken and eggs) at current prices (Ksh millions), 2018-2022
Source of Data: KNBS (2023), Economic Survey
Tracing job opportunities across poultry value chains
Production
This stage involves input suppliers, farmers and service providers. In Kenya, there are 305 registered animal feed companies and 4,000 registered agrovets involved in the selling of animal feeds and drugs. Additionally, there are 5,500 registered veterinary professionals and other extension officers who are the main service providers. Approximately 4.8 million rural households engage in indigenous poultry farming in most rural and semi-urban areas in Kenya. It requires less capital investment, making it economically viable for low-income households employing mostly women and youth.
Processing and value addition
The processing stage increases the value of indigenous poultry by enhancing its marketability and accessibility. It accounts for 55 per cent of total poultry meat. The activities comprise of slaughter, scalding, defeathering, evisceration, deboning and grinding done by men, women and youth. Traditional processors sell whole chicken directly to local markets, while more advanced facilities produce value-added products such as frozen cuts, marinades, or processed meat. Local processing facilities create direct employment for workers involved in slaughtering, cleaning, and packaging chicken.
Marketing and distribution
Indigenous poultry marketing and distribution in Kenya is largely informal and involves a variety of actors. Small-scale farmers sell their live chickens and eggs directly to local markets or intermediaries. Aggregators will need to be employed at this stage to collect live birds and eggs from farmers by transporting them to local markets, hotels and restaurants. This stage could also employ more retailers and market vendors who sell both live birds, eggs and processed products, both at wholesale and retail levels.
Challenges to Growth of Indigenous Poultry
Barriers to implementation of policy and regulatory
The national livestock development policy remains in draft form, constraining the potential of indigenous poultry sub sector.
Market access and infrastructure deficits
Indigenous poultry products struggle to reach larger markets due to inadequate cold storage facilities, poor transportation infrastructure, and restricted access to retail chains. Because of this, producers are frequently restricted to local or unofficial marketplaces with cheap prices and low profits.
Low production capacity and foreign competition
Indigenous poultry is reared under small-scale free-range system without feed supplementation, resulting to low inputs and productivity. This has exposed the indigenous poultry to stiff competition from exotic poultry and importation of poultry products. Furthermore, women and youth are the most involved in the production, yet they are economically disadvantaged with limited capital leading to low investments in the subsector.
Opportunities for Developing Indigenous Poultry
Developing market linkages
Strengthening market linkages through cooperatives, aggregation centres, farmer organizations, and better integration with urban and export markets can help smallholder poultry farmers access broader consumer bases with better prices, thus sustaining the number of farmers employed in the poultry sector. The export of processed meat will create employment through the establishment of export agents.
Value addition potential
Venturing into value-added products such as processed meat, eggs and poultry-based snacks would open new job opportunities. Establishing local processing plants for poultry products can foster employment in rural areas by creating jobs for women and youth in processing, aggregation, packing and sales.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Indigenous poultry plays a vital role in job creation that can be maximized through production and commercialization. The following recommendations could unlock this potential:
Full implementation of the livestock policy
Full implementation of the national livestock development policy at both national and county levels will enhance the productivity and sustainability of the indigenous poultry sector, promoting market access and value addition for livestock products.
Budgetary support to implementation of indigenous poultry related policies
Increasing government budget to ensure that the national poultry policy and the national livestock development daft policy are implemented by the relevant stakeholders will help in infrastructure development, research, industrialization and create market linkages, thus increasing productivity and removing barriers to market accessibility.
Capacity building on skills development for rural farmers
Training of rural farmers, especially women and youth who are largely involved in indigenous poultry, will increase productivity using modern cost-effective rearing systems, development of bankable business plans to access credit and market access and competitiveness.
