Improved and accessible dual-purpose chicken for African farmers oultry constitutes an important production of day-old-chicks of improved economic activity for the rural poor in dual-purpose chicken breeds for smallholder Pmany African countries. Additionally in farmers. many poor, rural families, poultry provides The day-old-chicks from the parent stock the family with a low cost, highly efficient farm are transported to so called ‘Brooder and nutritious protein. Units’ (equivalent to ‘Mother Units’ or ‘Ambassadors’) who will specialise in the brooding, feeding, and proper vaccination by Louis Perrault, Sasso, Sabres, France, process for the first 30-40 days of the Randall Ennis, World Poultry Foundation, chicks’ life. Through this system, local Huntsville, USA & Naomi Duijvesteijn, smallholder farmers have access to Hendrix Genetics, Boxmeer, improved genetics and the chickens have a The Netherlands. high chance of survival due to their good www.hendrix-genetics.com start. The local indigenous breeds can be SAPPSA project A long-term sustainable solution to inefficient and unproductive compared to mitigate this risk is duplication of the other alternative and improved breed Recently Hendrix Genetics received a grant germplasm in another geographic location options. Unfortunately, the smallholder from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to that allows direct export to countries, in farmers in rural areas often do not have further enhance the use of improved poultry order to create redundant supply points. access to these improved genetics. The genetics to provide a better living to women access to an improved low-input and dual- smallholder farmers in Africa. purpose chicken to supplement the local The programme, named Sustainable Access Grow the APMI-like initiative within indigenous breeds could transform the rural to Poultry Parent Stock for Africa (SAPPSA), and across countries poultry enterprise. aims to: In some countries such as Uganda, l Secure access of poultry parent stock. The World Poultry Foundation (WPF) has Ethiopia, Tanzania, Nigeria and Burkina Faso, l Grow the APMI-like initiatives within and been working with the Gates Foundation to investments are made to support the across countries. scale access to dual-purpose chicken in African Poultry Multiplication Initiative l Improve the dual-purpose better breeds Africa. The APMI is a system that has to be (APMI) or other comparable structures. The for African smallholder farmers. set up in each African country and model generally operates through capable adjustments per country to the model can local private companies to establish a parent be necessary, but the basics of the model stock and hatchery operation for the Secure access of poultry parent will be similar. stock A private company will acquire parent stock from a dual-purpose breed. They will Reliable access to improved parent stock supply the day-old-chicks to Brooder Units genetics is crucial for the success of APMI- (BU) together with feed and proper like initiatives. Today, the main improved vaccination. The BUs often have a capacity breeds are Kuroiler, which is developed and to hold between 500-2,000 birds. The marketed by Keggfarms, and Sasso, which is owners will be trained and will need to developed and marketed by Hendrix show commitment to be able to proceed as Genetics. The Kuroiler is currently being a BU owner. In addition to the supply of used in Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia and birds and material, the BU owners will Sasso is being used in Ethiopia, Tanzania, receive technical support and gender Zambia, Mozambique, Burkina Faso and empowerment provided by the PS farm Zimbabwe. (supported by funding from the Gates At present, Kuroiler parent stock are only Foundation). available from India and the Sasso lines used The BU holder will often need a loan and a in Africa are available from France and Brazil. financial institution needs to provide that The supply of parent stock can be disrupted loan. After keeping the chickens for four by outbreaks of diseases such as avian weeks, they will be sold to smallholder influenza. An outbreak of avian influenza in farmers. The number of chickens they buy the source country can lead to a ban on the varies but is usually between 2-20 (they tend export of parent stock. Continued on page 13 International Hatchery Practice • Volume 34 Number 1 11 Continued from page 11 has reached many smallholder farmers increasing performance at the crossbred to buy what they can afford). The male through this system, where in total 10.7 level under local circumstances, whereas chickens will be used for meat consumption million day-old-chicks have been placed, selection is performed at purebred level. and are either consumed by the family or 1,590 Brooder Units have been started, To improve the dual-purpose breeds, both sold to a local market. 525,000 smallholder farmers have been growth performance and egg performance The hens are used for egg production. The reached, and 292 positions have been hired on crossbred chickens will be tested. For egg key to success of this system is money. Every (by the end of 2018). production, hens are housed in sire-family party in APMI needs to make money for the The goal is to duplicate this model to groups and dam pedigree is unknown (the system to work, and results from the WPF another 10 African countries. The goal is to breed is known), and group performance is show that this is possible. For example, the impact two million households in 2020 with recorded (~40 offspring per sire tested). profitability of a standard BU in Nigeria was 54 million day-old-chicks being placed at For growth performance chickens will be 30% net profit per batch. The WPF using the smallholder farmers. To be able to grow the individually measured and the sire APMI is currently active in two African APMI, plans per country will be made and performance is evaluated through a sire countries (Tanzania and Nigeria). different institutions are involved to be able model. The predicted performance per sire The five basic goals of APMI are to increase to manage country-specific challenges and is included in the selection index and can be productivity, increase household income, to be able to roll out APMI as effectively as ranked on growth and egg production improve nutrition, empower women in rural possible. performed under African conditions. The areas, and employment opportunities. genetic gain of the lines may be further Productivity improvement at the village accelerated by the application of genomics level has improved a lot with the use of Breeding and other molecular tools. Sasso, Noiler or Kuroiler chickens (referred to as APMI chickens from now on) where Breeds such as Kuroiler and Sasso perform mortality at Mother Unit is <5% and <10% at better than most local indigenous breeds, Conclusions the smallholder level (where mortality rates where productivity and feed utilisation of 40-80% are normal). efficiency is far lower than current By securing access to high quality parent The number of eggs produced by the APMI commercial breeds. Results from ILRI’s stock and improving the breeding hens varies between 143 and 178 depending African Chicken Genetic Gain project programme of dual-purpose breeds under of the APMI breed compared to an average (ACGG; funded by Gates Foundation) shows African conditions, the APMI can be better production of village chickens of 40 eggs/ that there is a wide variability in the implemented in African countries with year. The number of days to reach 2.0kg also performance of Kuroiler and Sasso in reduced risks (good access to PS) and reduced a lot from ~220 days for village different agro-ecologies. improved performance (better performing chickens to ~80 days for APMI breeds. The Kuroiler and Sasso breed may not be breeds). The APMI (combining Tanzania and Nigeria) as adaptable or resilient to the local To make each APMI successful, environment as the indigenous breeds. In collaboration needs to be established to addition, genetic improvement is a powerful improve the infrastructure (access to technology to further generate increases in finance, logistics, network and training) to the productivity, adaptability, feed reach the smallholder farmers. Each country efficiency, and resilience of the lines that are will need small modifications (breed, APMI used to produce Kuroiler and Sasso parent set up), but ultimately for smallholder stock. As many different agro-ecologies are farmers it will result in: present in sub-Saharan Africa, field tests l Increased poultry production and within the SAPPSA project will be productivity. conducted to investigate the field l Increased rural household income. performance in different agro-ecologies. l Improved household nutrition. Combinations between local (sire)lines and l The empowerment of women. n improved breeds will also be tested to be able to provide the right breed combinations for different agro-ecologies. The authors thank the Bill & Melinda Gates Within the SAPPSA project, performance Foundation for their grant under African conditions will be part of the (https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ breeding programme through recurrent How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants- testing. Recurrent testing is directed towards Database/Grants/2018/10/OPP1190193) International Hatchery Practice • Volume 34 Number 1 13.