Current projects

Project title:                                         CHICKEN BREEDING 
Project location:                       North Singida Rural District; Ilongero Ward
Project type:                                    Income generating activity
Project timescale:                                        18 months
Cost:                                          5,000,000.00 Tzsh, approx. 2,200gbp 

SUMMARY DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT
Funds have been secured to impliment a chicken rearing income generating business, starting May 2008. This pilot project, which will involve one group of 15 women, is based in the Ilongero ward of Singida Rural in Tanzania. The group has received training in Entrepreneurship, Budgeting and Planning as well as Leadership and Good Governance, along with other groups who are now ready, but for lack of resources, to implement their income generating ideas.

The project is intent on using the best proven methods of rearing chicken for commercial purposes in the context of small-scale intensive production systems and consists of a package of specific agricultural training, a microloan and ongoing support and supervision for a sustainable and growing development activity that the RWDA hopes to replicate for up to 40 groups in the region.

The funding is on a microloan basis with interests to cover the RWDA’s bank charges and the monitering, evaluating and on going support costs. Microloans are efficient ways of recycling money so as to support many income generating activities. Even more importantly, they are empowering and therefore sustainable as well as the best route to developing an entrepreneurial spirit, itself the key to economic success and development.
We need to raise further funding to start another 10 groups within 1 year, in order to accelerate the recycling of the loans to up to the 40 groups in total.

PROJECT BACKGROUND
Evaluation reports from a number of integrated development projects in developing countries indicate that scavenging village chickens play a significant role in poverty alleviation (through better nutrition as well as generating small incomes) and enhancing gender equity among the disadvantaged communities. However, low productivity is the main feature of this production system that at best allows the household to subsist but does nothing towards the attainmnent of  higher and more secure standards of living.

Low productivity has been attributed to low genetic potential, poor disease control programmes, poor feeding (usually household scraps), multi age groups in the same flock, (leading to high chicks losses as they starve to death because of high competition for the scarce available food) and vulnerability to preditors. Further more a lack of knowledge in the systematic management, planning and control of the breeding process and in sales and marketing means that opportunities are lost and chicken rearing remains a ad-hoc, culturally rooted activity that has more to do with keeping pets than with running a business.

In late 2006 the RWDA gathered information on all the groups in the Ilongero and Kinyeto wards and found that 17 groups (212 members) representing 47.6% of all groups were engaged in chicken rearing. However productivity was generally very low with only 4 groups sheltering the chickens in a specially built kibanda and providing medecine regularly.

The urgency of turning these very "cottage" activities into organized businesses is also dictated by the geographic situation of Singida. Too far away from the wildlife parks, the growing tourism industry is passing Singida by. Worse still, the soil is very poor due to erosion and lack of rain and thus the population of the district of Singida cannot contemplate agricultural activities of the scale needed to provide an economic development substantial enough to reduce, if not erase poverty and slow down the exodus of young people to the towns.

On the other hand a thriving chicken industry is a very concrete dream that would, not only benefit the whole area, but can be implemented and run by women, widows and single mothers, those that despite their hard work remain the underdogs of Tanzanian society.

The RWDA and The Kanga Project also strongly believe that successful group businesses will encourage members to look even further and consider large scale intensive chicken production systems run as cooperatives that could transform Singida into the capital of chicken breeding, supplying not only the nearest towns but also the internal growing African markets. It is worth noting that South Africa is the only country that need not import chickens to feed its population. As Branckaert (1996) claims: "Village chicken is the backbone for a sustainable well-adapted semi-commercial subsector. Those households that appreciate the economic importance of the village chicken and are willing to invest more will easily adopt intensive poultry keeping when resources allow." In other words, as we all know, success breeds success.

THE BENEFICIARIES
The pilot project will involve a selected group of 15 women in Ilongero. Its expansion, however, will benefit in excess of 400 participants, their immediate families, the other local businesses and give hope to new generations.
Apart from the financial benefits, the new women entrepreneurs will have acquired the skills and confidence to try out other activities, will have developed into active participants in their future and be on their way to becoming equal partners and citizens.