Increasing egg availability through smallholder business models in East Africa and India

Abstract

Availability and consumption of eggs, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, is low despite their apparent benefits. We investigated constraints in egg production in four countries; Kenya, Ethiopia, Malawi, and India and identified five business models that are viable and sustainable. They are (a) micro-franchising, (b) microfinancing, (c) cooperative farming, (d) enterprise development, and (e) out-grower model. All of them involve smallholder farmers to increase egg production. These farmers have access to soft loans and use improved inputs and extension services to varying degrees. Inputs include resilient breeds of day-old chicks or point-of-lay hens, feed, vaccines, medicines, and housing. Outgrower and enterprise development models have a significant potential of rapidly increasing egg yields, achieve self-sufficiency, operate at or near scale, and provide a high income for the farmers. This study shows how a range of actors in commercial, not-for-profit and microfinance sectors with specialized skills, can facilitate the transformation of the egg production sector. Specific skills include brooding (hatchery operations), feed milling, aggregation, and training of smallholder farmers or large-scale rearing. The five archetypes we describe here are promising ways to increase egg availability in rural areas.

Eggs: A high potential food for improving maternal and child nutrition

“…The third and fourth papers examine how a controlled intervention to foster poultry production affected child dietary diversity and nutritional status in Ghana (Marquis et al, ) and Zambia (Dumas, Lewis, & Travis, ), while the fifth paper reviews successes and lessons learned from a project on small‐scale poultry production to increase egg production and household egg intake in four diverse African contexts (Nordhagen & Klemn, ). A novel approach to use chicken eggshells to improve dietary calcium intake in rural sub‐Saharan Africa is reported in the sixth paper (Bartter et al, ), while the seventh paper reports on business models for poultry production in East Africa and India (Beesabathuni, Lingala, & Kraemer, ). The multiple roles, systems and challenges, and options for sustainable poultry production through a Planetary Health lens are reviewed in the eighth paper (Ayers et al, ), and the supplement closes with a paper on how universal access to eggs might be achieved through large‐scale poultry production (Morris, Beesabathuni, & Headey, ).…”

An egg for everyone: Pathways to universal access to one of nature's most nutritious foods

“…Higher‐yield systems require several thousand layer chickens to break even (e.g., Ymeri, Sahiti, Musliu, Shaqiri, & Pllana, ), and this requires capital for infrastructure (barns/cages, etc.) and working capital to purchase feed and other inputs, as discussed in detail by Beesabathuni, Lingala, and Kraemer (). The lack of access to rural credit is likely a major constraint to the transition to intensive production units, as is the lack of well‐developed markets for inputs such as feed.…”

“…This scenario envisages a programme of support to enhance the productivity of the many households in Africa and Asia who already rear backyard or scavenging poultry. It builds on models from Ethiopia and India described earlier in this supplement (Beesabathuni et al, ). In these models, a farmer rears a maximum of 20 birds in a backyard setting with improved breeds (vaccinated day‐old chicks or point‐of‐lay hens), supplemental feed, and shelter.…”

“…In this model, groups of five smallholder farmers constitute one group and are trained to operate a small‐scale farm with 5,000 birds, thereby simplifying supply chain coordination of inputs to the farm while also ensuring minimal losses in the transport of eggs to a market closest to the community. Farms with a flock size of 5,000 birds or more are viable in 3 years and are more profitable than those with smaller flock sizes (Beesabathuni et al, ; Ymeri et al, ). Each farmer group has access to credit, building materials, cages, start‐up flock and relevant materials, biosecurity measures, protective clothing, and training in best practices.…”

“…The hub acts as the aggregator of inputs and provides training, insurance, and credit to the farmer groups. In typical LMIC conditions, we estimate that each hub can efficiently serve a land area of 5,000 km 2 , but beyond that, transporting eggs across long distances becomes a challenge (Beesabathuni et al, ). In densely populated rural areas, a land area of 5,000 km 2 could be home to millions of people, and the hub would need to coordinate a thousand or more farmer groups.…”