A recent news update from NRPC director Pat Boland provides some insight into KYEEMA’s approach.   

Imagine two villages, each about the same size and each with a population of about 500 chickens. In one, you decide to help by donating a further 300 chickens, nice healthy chickens, and you manage to avoid all the practical pitfalls which so often dog such enterprises. In the other, you donate no chickens at all. All you do is train a couple of people in how to vaccinate chickens against Newcastle disease. You don’t give them anything much, just training and guidance. You simply set them up with the wherewithal to obtain the vaccine, to use it properly, to charge a fee so that they can buy more vaccine and put a bit in their pocket, and to continue their job after you’ve gone. That’s all.

Then you wait a couple of years and go back to see which village has more chickens…

You’ve already guessed it and you are correct. We would have seen smiles, clapping and dancing at the first village, great for publicity but not necessarily a reflection of substantial progress. And we certainly need progress – the vast majority of village chickens in Malawi are not vaccinated.

PROJECT UPDATE

In our work in Ntchisi, we’ve just found that the losses from Newcastle disease are immense. We’ve confirmed something we’ve always said: Newcastle disease is the biggest single cause of death in village chickens in this part of the world. We found that households which had not vaccinated had lost about five times as many chickens to Newcastle disease as those which had vaccinated. Next on the list was losses through predation which are particularly important for young chicks. This was all part of a small survey we did towards the end of the project, too small to hang my hat on, but of course I’m delighted that these results have generally supported what we intuitively thought was the way to go. We’ve vaccinated over 60,000 chickens in Ntchisi so far and that certainly represents many thousands of chickens saved.

So, we’ll concentrate more on these issues and with luck soon have an impact approaching that of the Bill Gates initiative to donate more than 100,000 chickens.

Sign up to the National Rural Poultry Centre newsletter here to be updated regularly on their work.

YOUNG VILLAGE CHAMPION FROM MALAWI

At just 18 years of age, Victoria Jere is the youngest of some 43 community based vaccinators who were trained as part of an initiative in Ntchisi district, Malawi, with funding from the Palladium Communities 1st program. Victoria is from Mwangala Village in the hilly and beautiful area of Malipa. We asked Victoria why she is keen to participate in this program. After all, she has yet to finish high school.

Victoria, who lives at home with her four siblings, told us her family has quite an interest in livestock. Her father runs a small herd of beef cattle and her mother keeps the one family goat. But it is Victoria who owns most of the 15 chickens in the household. She finds raising chickens easy and profitable. Her work vaccinating the many hundreds of chickens in her village brings her a small income which she says will help her procure more chickens. It will also help to pay a part of her school fees. She also says the manure produced by the chickens is not wasted – what can be collected is used as fertiliser on the family crops.

Victoria says that she is keen to continue with the work of vaccinating chickens in her village, not just because it brings a small income for her but because it is recognised and appreciated by chicken owners generally. She knows she is doing something which is useful and satisfying for other people in her village.

Associate Professor Joanne Meers recognised for Animal Health work in Developing...Jo Meers KYEEMAkyeemaindigenousday2016Recognising Indigenous Rights, Knowledge, Resources and Chickens for Sustainable...