Enhancing Household Food and Income Security Through Improved Indigenous Poultry Production: An Evidence From Kenya

Abstract

Over the years, the importance of indigenous chicken has increased, with most organizations recognizing it as a vital industry for resource-poor farmers. However, the industry has experienced several problems due to poor and uneconomical returns. The Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), former Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), has been on the forefront of research in order to improve productivity of indigenous chicken. The KARI improved chicken technology has been promoted in wide agro-ecologies to curb the problem of poor productivity. KALRO, through the Korean Program for International Cooperation in Agricultural Technology (KOPIA) project, has been using this technology in two model villages namely Machakos and Kiambu for the past five years. This study was carried out to evaluate the impact of KARI improved chicken technology on food and household income. It is reported that 59% Machakos and 39% Kiambu farmers adopted this technology which as a result increased the adoption rate from 2% in 2008 to 59% in 2016. However, the adoption rate dropped in 2017 and started to rise again in 2018. In 2018, the number of eggs sold in both counties increased drastically, with Machakos experiencing the highest rise of 963% while Kiambu recording a 230% rise each month. This rise was mainly to the introduction of the improved KALRO chicken technique which laid between 180 and 250 eggs per year. This resulted in higher food and household revenue from egg sales. These findings demonstrated that the KARI improved chicken technology has enhanced household food and economic security.