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Author's personal copy Provided for non-commercial research and educational use. Not for reproduction, distribution or commercial use. This article was originally published in Encyclopedia of Food Security and Sustainability, published by Elsevier, and the attached copy is provided by Elsevier for the author's benefit and for the benefit of the author's institution, for non-commercial research and educational use including without limitation use in instruction at your institution, sending it to specific colleagues who you know, and providing a copy to your institution's administrator. All other uses, reproduction and distribution, including without limitation commercial reprints, selling or licensing copies or access, or posting on open internet sites, your personal or institution’s website or repository, are prohibited. For exceptions, permission may be sought for such use through Elsevier’s permissions site at: https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/copyright/permissions From Alders, R., Costa, R., Gallardo, R.A., Sparks, N., Zhou, H., 2019. Smallholder Poultry: Contributions to Food and Nutrition Security. In: Ferranti, P., Berry, E.M., Anderson, J.R. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Food Security and Sustainability, vol. 3, pp. 292–298. Elsevier. ISBN: 9780128126875 Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved Elsevier Author's personal copy Smallholder Poultry: Contributions to Food and Nutrition Security Robyn Aldersa,b, Rosa Costab, Rodrigo A Gallardoc, Nick Sparksd, and Huaijun Zhoue, a School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Charles Perkins Centre and Marie Bashir Institute, University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia; b International Rural Poultry Centre, Kyeema Foundation, Maputo, Mozambique, and Brisbane, Brisbane, QLD, Australia; c College of Veterinary Medicine, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, United States; d Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom; and e Animal Science Department, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, United States © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Abstract 292 Introduction 292 Characteristics of Households Raising Smallholder Poultry 293 Urbanpoultry 293 Ruralpoultry 293 Challenges to Health and Production 295 Direct Contributions to Food and Nutrition Security 295 Urbanpoultry 295 Ruralpoultry 295 Indirect Contributions to Food and Nutrition Security 297 Conclusions 297 Acknowledgements 297 References 297 Abstract Domestic chickens are the most abundant livestock species present across the world irrespective of culture and religion. The long-term relationship between humans and poultry is a testimony to the role played by poultry in human society. Over the centuries, poultry were generally kept in small numbers as part of household livelihood strategies. In the 20th century, after World War II, the introduction of intensive poultry production and increased ease of transport led to a dramatic increase in specialised and increasingly large and intensive, poultry farms. More traditional forms of poultry production have continued to exist in a range of settings. In high-income countries such as Australia, the UK and the US, backyard poultry raising in residential areas is seeing a resurgence in the 21st century. The major reasons for keeping backyardchickens included food forhome use first (eggs or meat or both), followed bygardening “partners” (e.g., pest control, manure as fertilizer) and pets. Smallholder poultry health and production challenges vary considerably depending on the location and the production systems involved, e.g. under extensive scavenging systems, the major limiting factors in most locations include infectious disease, predation and inadequate scavenging feed resource base. Smallholder poultry play a special role in food and nutrition security where cultural preferences and nutrition are taken into account. Meat and eggs from smallholder poultry constitute a high-quality food source, densely packed with essential macro- and micronutrients - nutrients that are often deficient or absent in the largely plant-based diets common in resource-poor settings. These birds contribute directly to food security through home consumption and indirectly through the sale of birds to support the purchase of other food items, improved household sanitary conditions and medicines. Introduction Domestic chickens are the most abundant livestock species present across the world irrespective of culture and religion. Archaeological evidence suggests that chickens were domesticated from the red jungle fowl in Asia 8000 years ago and that they later spread to Western Europe. Chickens even feature in one of the last great human migrations with ancient DNA research employing their DNA to track human migration across the remote Pacific(Thomson et al., 2014). Subsequent domestication events across Africa, the Americas and Europe led to the domestication of other birds commonly referred to as poultry: ducks, geese, turkeys, pheasants, pigeons and Guinea fowl (Alders, 2004). In the 21st Century, chickens constitute about 90 percent of the poultry population and the term “poultry” is therefore often used synonymously for chickens (FAO, 2014). The long-term relationship between humans and poultry is a testimony to the role played by poultry in human society and to food security in particular. Over the centuries, poultry were generally kept in small numbers, primarily in rural settings but also urban, as part of household livelihood strategies which included game fighting and for food security. In the 20th century, after 292 Encyclopedia of Food Security and Sustainability, Volume 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-100596-5.21527-8 Encyclopedia of Food Security and Sustainability, 2019, 292–298 Author's personal copy Smallholder Poultry: Contributions to Food and Nutrition Security 293 World War II, the introduction of intensive poultry production (with separate enterprises for eggs and meat) and increased ease of transport led to a dramatic increase in specialised and increasingly large and intensive, poultry farms. Instead of birds moving around to scavenge in their environment, transport and management systems were developed that brought food and water, sometimes considerable distances, to the bird. The efficiency of the poultry industry, where no part of the bird or egg is wasted and selective breeding is employed to great effect, has facilitated this growth and made it economically viable despite the transport costs in many parts of the world. More traditional forms of poultry production have continued to exist in a range of settings. In resource-poor rural settings, the raising of small flocks of poultry is common in mixed crop-livestock farming systems. In high-income countries such as Australia, the UK and the US, backyard poultry raising in residential areas declined dramatically for a number of decades before seeing a resurgence since the turn of the century. The motivation of these often relatively wealthy consumers are reported to be: reconnecting with what they perceive to be a healthier and/or cheaper form of nutrition; being more ‘self-sufficient’; and sometimes simply raising them as pets (Karabozhilova et al., 2012). Backyard chickens have been the fastest growing household pets in Eastern Australia for the past decade. Smallholder poultry also play a special role in food and nutrition security where cultural preferences and nutrition are taken into account and this interaction constitutes the focus of this paper. The systems under which they are raised are almost as diverse as the different breeds of chickens and are outlined in Fig. 1. Characteristics of Households Raising Smallholder Poultry In 2014, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) developed a new classification of family poultry production systems (Table 1). ‘Family poultry’ describes the full variety of smallholder poultry production systems that are practised by individual families as a means of obtaining food security, income and gainful employment (FAO, 2014). Urbanpoultry Backyard birds are kept in urban and peri-urban settings across all countries with larger flock sizes in more rural areas. Recent studies suggest that the majority of poultry caregivers in the UK and the US are female with a high educational level (Elkhoraibi et al., 2014; Karabozhilova et al., 2012). The major reasons mentioned for keeping backyard chickens included food for home use first (eggs or meat or both), followed by gardening “partners” (e.g., pest control, manure as fertilizer) and pets. In these settings, backyard hens that initially provided eggs to households go on to become family pets once they cease laying. Ruralpoultry In low-to middle-income countries extensive and semi-intensive poultry remain critically important with estimates suggesting that more than 80% of the world’s poultry stock is kept in small numbers, from as few as three up to about 20 birds (Sonaiya, 2007). In RURAL PERI-URBAN URBAN Figure 1 Classification of smallholder poultry systems across varying geographic and economic situations. Encyclopedia of Food Security and Sustainability, 2019, 292–298 Author's personal copy 294 Smallholder Poultry: Contributions to Food and Nutrition Security Table 1 Characteristics of the four family poultry production systems commonly practised in low- to middle-income countries (FAO, 2014) with additions written in italics Criteria Backyard Small extensive scavenging Extensive scavenging Semi-intensive Small-scale intensive Production/farming