Round 1

May 2010

Best Practices & Innovations (BPI) Initiative

Agriculture & Rural Livelihoods

Improved Poultry Program

Helen Keller International
Best Practice Award for Livestock Production

Overview:
In Bangladesh, Helen Keller International’s Improved Poultry Program promotes local poultry-rearing
with improved management and feeding practices, including creep feeding (to increase egg production),
appropriate housing and proper vaccination. While improved poultry-rearing practices have been
developed and implemented by other organizations, HKI’s program is the first to integrate nutrition
education and asset protection training as essential components of poultry-rearing and to target the
landless ultra-poor as community-based vaccinators. Results from program areas show increased egg
production, household income and egg consumption among children under five years of age and women
of reproductive age.

Intervention Details:
Location Bangladesh – Barisal District, Bhola District, Patuakhali District, Chittagong
Hill Tracts, and four Districts in Northern Chars
Start Date 2005
End Date 2009
Scale Local/Community
Target Population Poor and ultra-poor homestead food producers (women)
Number of beneficiaries 46,000 (10,000 in CHT-HFP / 10,000 in Char 2 / 26,400 in Jibon-o-Jibika
Partners GJUS, ICDA, SPEED Trust, SAP-BD, SDA, CSC, USHIK, DUS, VOSD, SKS,
DCPUK, MMS, GBS, Pashasik Parashad, GUK-Bogra, CIRAD, NSKS, IDF
Funders/Donors Oxfam Novib, USAID
Website www.hki.org/bangladesh
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About the Intervention

1. Background/Context
What challenges or problems were the interventions designed to address? Why was the intervention
needed?
The importance of poultry to rural livelihoods and nutrition status:
HKI’s Homestead Gardening program, initiated in Bangladesh in 1990, was designed to improve dietary
quality and nutrition status among severely food insecure populations in Bangladesh. With minimal
technical and input support, households with limited land can see significant improvements in the
quality of their diets and overall nutrition status. In 2003, HKI Bangladesh began introducing a poultry-
rearing component into its gardening programs. It is well documented that consumption of animal-
source foods is one of the most effective measures to reduce anemia and improve the nutritional
status of vulnerable populations in food insecure and high-malnutrition contexts.i, ii Animal source
foods have higher and more bio-available concentrations of essential micronutrients for populations
with elevated nutritional requirements, including children under two, adolescent girls, and pregnant or
lactating women. Poultry and eggs are rich sources of iron, zinc, Vitamin A, Vitamin B-12, and
riboflavin and can counter protein deficiency malnutrition. As one of the few household assets over
which women in rural Bangladesh have principle control, poultry rearing can also generate a small but
significant source of income that women can use to secure food and essential household items during
lean periods.

The challenges in Bangladesh:

The challenges to small-scale poultry production in rural Bangladesh are many, due to a combination of
common disease threats and poor rearing practices. Poultry are reared in unhygienic conditions, are
vulnerable to predators and theft, and receive minimal supplemental feeding or care during the first
days after hatching. There is limited knowledge about vaccination schedules or the importance of
vaccination; even when a vaccine supply is readily available from the Department of Livestock Services,
many households are reluctant to spend money on vaccine or fail to fulfill the complete schedule.

As a result, the poultry reared at the household level tend to be small and weak; hens produce smaller,
fewer eggs; and there is high mortality due to predators and disease. While popular improved
varieties such as Sonaliand & Fayhomi produce larger and more eggs, these birds have weaker immune
systems and are more vulnerable to communicable diseases such as raniket and avian influenza.
Outbreaks of avian influenza, such as occurred in 2006-2008, can devastate flocks and undermine the
effectiveness of homestead food production programs. Finally, without proper sheds or living spaces
for the poultry, many households lose their poultry flocks during the many floods, cyclones, and
natural disasters to which Bangladesh is prone.

For all of these reasons, traditional poultry rearing in the rural areas does not generate the income or
surplus eggs and meat that could have a lasting impact on nutritional status and food security in
vulnerable areas.
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2. Goals & Objectives

What were the intervention’s goals and objectives? What was it meant to accomplish?
In 2006, facing the potential threat of avian influenza and the need for a more reliable, disease-
resistant source of improved poultry, HKI revised its poultry interventions. The new Improved Poultry
Program (IPP) strategy promotes local poultry rearing with improved management and feeding
practices, such as creep feeding (which is known to increase the size and scope of egg production),
appropriate housing, and proper vaccination.

The immediate objectives of HKI’s improved poultry-rearing strategy were to reduce poultry loss,
increase egg production, and improve availability of locally bred hens, through better hatching,
management, vaccination, and flood-protection practices. The social development objectives are to
improve regular consumption of animal source foods and to increase women-controlled incomes from
sales of surplus eggs and poultry products.

3. Key Activities
Please describe the intervention’s main activities. What role did each partner play? If applicable, how is
the intervention innovative?
HKI’s improved poultry-rearing strategy combines six essential components:
1. Creep feeding (supplemental feeding) to improve survival rates after hatching.
2. Material and technical support to build a hygienic, ventilated, moveable poultry shed,
especially to protect the poultry during floods.
3. Promotion and procurement of locally bred hens, which are less vulnerable to avian influenza
and other diseases.
4. Training and equipping of community-based vaccinators.
5. Formal linkages between vaccinators and Department of Livestock Services (DLS) for
continuous supply of vaccine.
6. Education on the benefits of regular egg and poultry consumption to reduce malnutrition
among women and children under two years of age.

Partner training:
HKI delivers its homestead food production programs through local NGO partners, thus building
technical knowledge and capacity at the local level. HKI’s animal husbandry Technical Officers provide
master training to the partner NGO field officers, who in turn deliver training and follow-up support
directly to the beneficiaries and demonstration farmers.

Beneficiary training:
A one-day package of poultry-rearing techniques and a one-day training on day-old-chick rearing are
delivered via a short, participatory training to both the household beneficiaries. The training covers
supplemental feeding for newborn chicks, how to separate the chicks from the hens during the first 10-
15 days, how to select appropriate breeds, how and when to vaccinate, and proper shelter/shed
models. A refresher training is usually scheduled later in the given homestead food production project
to ensure that beneficiaries’ skills and knowledge are retained.
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Asset support:
A small asset package of poultry inputs is delivered to each of the beneficiaries, along with training on
building and repairing the shed. The asset package varies from project to project and on the needs of
the beneficiaries; it may include a combination of chicks or materials for building a shed.

Vaccinator training and vaccinator development:

Community-based vaccinators are selected from among a sub-group of ultra-poor women who are
functionally landless and unable to participate fully in homestead gardening activities. They are
provided with a vaccination kit (including cold box, carrying kit, syringe, and needles, and some
vaccines at the beginning).

Nutrition education:
Nutrition education is held on a regular, rotating basis for all of the participating households. These
group sessions focus on appropriate infant-young child feeding and care of pregnant and lactating
women. They emphasize the importance of eating extra meals during pregnancy and adding affordable
animal-source foods (particularly eggs) to improve dietary diversity and nutrition.

Through this package of technical advice, education, and asset support, HKI helps beneficiaries build up
sizeable flocks of egg-producing birds that are well-protected from natural disaster and disease. Sales
of poultry and eggs are shown to supplement household incomes. Moreover, the addition of the
nutrition education component ensures that beneficiaries first and foremost reap the nutritional
benefits themselves. The broader community benefits from the increased availability of local variety
chicks (which are more disease-resistant) and from the knowledge about and availability of
appropriate vaccines.

4. Effectiveness/Evidence of Success
What were the results of the intervention, and how were they measured? Who and how many people
benefited from the intervention? What evidence do you have to support these results (e.g. field visit
reports, internal tracking & monitoring, internal or external evaluations, etc.)?
While improved poultry-rearing practices have been developed and used by other organizations in
Bangladesh,iiiiv HKI is the first organization consistently to integrate nutrition education and asset
protection training as an essential component of the poultry rearing and to target the landless ultra-
poor as community-based vaccinators. Where HKI’s Integrated Poultry Program (IPP) has been
implemented, results show vastly increased egg production, increases in household income, and
significant increases in egg consumption among children under five and women of reproductive age.

Increases in production and income:

Evidence from three HKI projects shows that beneficiaries are able quickly to adapt the new practices,
and the size of flocks and average number of eggs produced by the households can double or triple
over the course of a three- to five--year project. In the CHT-HFP project, for example, close to 90% of
target beneficiaries were rearing local poultry at end of project, and nearly 60% had over 10 birds per
household.

By the end of the five-year Jibon-O-Jibika project, 87% of household were practicing improved feeding
practices, 79% had hygienic sheds for the poultry, and 75% had vaccinated on schedule.
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CHT-HFP Project: Percentage of target households

raising poultry
100 1-9 chickens
88.3 10 or more chickens
Proportion (% )

80
31.5
64.1 64.8
60 60.8

35.8 36.8
40 40.0
56.8
20
28.3 28.0 20.8
0
Baseline Endline Baseline Endline
2006 (May- 2008 (May- 2006 (May- 2008 (May-
June) June) June) June)
n=400 n=400 n=400 n=400
Target Control

The graph below shows the rate of change in egg production in the three projects in which the HKI
Improved Poultry Program has been practiced. In the Char 2 project, the IPP approach was introduced
midway through the project, and the project period coincided with massive flood and outbreaks of
avian influenza; therefore the relative improvement in egg output is quite small. In the CHT-HFP
project and five-year Jibon-O-Jibika (JOJ) Project, however, there is a remarkable increase in mean egg
production per household over the course of three to five years. In the JOJ project, a five-year project,
average egg production rose from 22 to 86 eggs per household over a two-month period. By the end of
the three-year CHT-HFP project, 44% of the beneficiaries were collecting 20 or more eggs in the two
months prior to the survey.

Increased egg production

70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Target Control Target Control Target

CHT Char 2 JOJ

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As flocks grow in size, the beneficiaries increasingly engage in sales of surplus poultry and eggs. By the
end of the CHT-HFP project, for example, over 60% of households were generating some income from
homestead produce. Poultry birds, in particular, generate relatively higher income than eggs or
vegetables and can become a vital household safety net during lean periods. The chart below shows
the mean increases in income from poultry and egg sales across the three projects. Again, the gains
from the Char 2 project are more modest, due to the mid-term introduction of the poultry program
and the coincidence of avian influenza and severe flooding in the target area. In the JOJ project,
however, average income from poultry sales among the beneficiaries reached nearly 600 taka per two
months ($8). This represents a vital source of income over which the woman herself can retain sole
control. In the CHT-HFP project, data shows that the median income from homestead produce sales
was about 360 taka over a two-month period. While the income is relatively modest, it enabled
women to make household purchases that further improved dietary quality. More than 72% of the
households who sold produce used the income to purchase higher-quality food items, such as edible
oils, iodized salt, pulses, and staples.

Income earned in last two months from poultry sales (in taka)

Baseline Endline
CHT HFP Project (Oxfam Novib),
2006-2008
Poultry sales 83.52 taka 291.94 taka
Egg sales 0.44 taka 4.24 taka
Char II HFP Project (Oxfam Novib),
2005-2008
Poultry sales 70.98 taka 67.58 taka
Egg sales 5.69 taka 5.87 taka
Jibon-o-Jibika (USAID),
2005-2009
Poultry sales 67. 58 taka 581.14 taka
Egg sales 5.87 taka 130.09 taka

Nutritional outcomes:
Poultry sales and consumption patterns show that beneficiaries are able to generate income from sales
of poultry, but mainly consume, rather than sell, the eggs. In the five-year Jibon-o-Jibika project, for
example, mothers’ consumption of eggs at least once a week rose from 55% to 80%, and children’s egg
consumption rose from 50% to 85%. The graph below shows the percentage change in the numbers of
women and children who ate eggs at least three days a week. This change indicates an important
improvement in intake of essential micronutrients, including iron, Vitamin A, Vitamin D, as well as
essential fats and protein. Given the extremely limited diversity of the typical diets at baseline, this
single dietary change represents an impressive nutrition gain for these food insecure populations.
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Percent change in consumption of eggs on three or more days per week

While other factors (such as access to deworming and iron tablets, and increased intake of dark green
leafy vegetables) are at play, the increased consumption of animal-source foods over the course of the
projects corresponds with a remarkable drop in anemia prevalence among the target populations.

Changes in Anemia rates

30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
-10.00% Target Control Target Control Target Control Target Control

-20.00% CHT Char 2 CHT Char 2

-30.00%
Mother Child
-40.00%
-50.00%
-60.00%

As the graph above shows, there were massive reductions in anemia rates among the beneficiaries in
the two projects for which this information was collected. In contrast, rates of anemia worsened or
remained the same among the control groups. In the three-year, Oxfam Novib-funded CHT-HFP
project, for example, there was a 55% decrease in women’s anemia rates among the beneficiaries, and
the rates of anemia in children under five fell by 40% among the beneficiaries.
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Similarly, in the three-year Oxfam Novib-funded Char 2 project in the Northern Char areas, women’s
anemia fell by nearly 40% in the beneficiary population, but rose by nearly 20% in the control group.
Among the target children, there was a 53% decrease in anemia, while the rates among the control
group were unchanged.

Promotion of vaccination:
By training the beneficiaries on the benefits of vaccination and linking them directly to the Department
of Livestock Services, HKI secures a demand for and supply of vaccine, which minimizes poultry loss to
diseases. Proper vaccination alone can reduce poultry mortality by around 25%.

In the three-year CHT HFP project, for example, HKI selected and trained 244 community-based
vaccinators, who were willing to make house-to-house visits to deliver the vaccines. All of the
vaccinators received a basic and refresher vaccinator training, and a set of vaccination tools including a
cold-safe vaccine carrier, syringe, measuring cylinder, and hand gloves. Partner NGOs purchased the
vaccine from the sub-district Department of Livestock Services and distributed it to the vaccinators.
Initially, vaccines were provided for free to beneficiaries to encourage the practice. Following intensive
counseling on the benefits of and need for vaccination, the vaccinators began charging a nominal fee
for the service, of 0.5-1 taka per chick. By the third year of the project, 94% of homestead gardeners
(9,443) were purchasing vaccine directly from the community vaccinators. Equally important was the
spillover effect, as an additional 4,009 non-targeted households purchased vaccine. In total, 112,483
chickens were vaccinated in the ten sub-districts, which represent a significant benefit to the
community.

5. Equitable Outcomes
Describe how the intervention enabled the participation of and produced benefits for women. Please
provide data showing the comparative benefits for men and women. If the intervention focused
exclusively on men, please explain the rationale for doing so.
HKI’s homestead food production programs exclusively target women, who have limited control over
productive assets and are more likely to benefit from homestead-based livelihood interventions.
Participatory research with program participants reveals that poultry are women’s most critical
resource for food security, because it is an asset over which they have most control. While less
valuable than jewelry or small livestock, poultry are in ways a more valuable asset, because male family
members will not sell or usurp the asset in time of need.

In the lean periods, the decision to sell poultry is the woman’s decision; women who do not own
poultry are obliged to skip meals or to abandon their children to seek exploitative day labor. While
incomes from poultry sales are relatively modest, asset-control profiles show that women generally
gain sole control over their “egg money,” which they can spend on higher quality food items (such as
dal) or small education expenses. HKI data shows that women’s ability to make decisions about
income from homestead food production increases steadily over the life of the projects.

The USAID-funded JOJ project targeted ultra-poor, landless women who were otherwise unable to
participate in homestead food production activities. They are often dependent only on the government
safety nets (VGD card), which is the equivalent of 30 kgs of rice per month, or roughly 600 taka ($8) per
month. In this project, high-performing vaccinators earn as much as tk. 4,000-5,000 per month ($57-
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71), while those at the lower end of the scale earn around tk 500 to tk1,500 per month ($7-21). To put
this in perspective, ultra-poor women in this context are often female heads of household, elderly or
disabled women without a male income-earner. Thus, while few women per community benefit from
the vaccinator training program, when the project targets the most vulnerable community members to
become vaccinators, those beneficiaries derive relatively greater outcomes from the income, becoming
self-sustaining income earners.

6. Efficiency/Cost-Effectiveness
How do the intervention’s relative costs compare to the outcomes achieved? Please provide evidence
to support your answer.
Malnutrition has devastating costs in terms of maternal and child mortality and morbidity. AED
estimates that 13%-22% of maternal mortality in South Asia could be reduced only by eliminating
Vitamin A deficiency. A single egg contains 98 micrograms of Vitamin A, which is about 16% of the
adult daily requirement of this essential micronutrient. Thus, promotion of daily egg consumption
among the populations most at risk of Vitamin A deficiency-related disorders (pregnant /lactating
women and children under two) is a low-cost, sustainable intervention to reduce the burden of
malnutrition.

HKI data show that, internationally, the average cost of setting up a homestead garden is just $9.
Within this, the poultry component requires extremely minimal input costs per beneficiary. In the JOJ
project and Char 2 project, the cost per beneficiary in poultry inputs is just 300-325 taka ($4); each
poultry training costs roughly 10 taka ($0.14) per participant, while the vaccinator training is roughly 25
taka ($0.35) per participant.

The cost of the vaccinator kit is relatively higher, at 1200 taka ($17), however, the intervention pays
for itself, as smallholder farmers (both beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries) are willing to pay a nominal
fee (<1 taka per chicken) for the vaccination service, which ensures ongoing supply of vaccine in the
communities beyond the end of the projects.

It is estimated that roughly 25%v of poultry in Bangladesh are lost each year due to outbreaks of
preventable diseases for which vaccines exist. Thus, the high demand for vaccination services
generated by the poultry program has lasting, community-wide benefits in terms of reduced burden of
disease and better hatching and survival rates of local variety breeds. In the five-year Jibon-o-Jibika
Project, the partner NGOs organized a total of 756 mass vaccination events at the community level,
which covered approximately 22,247 target and 14,462 non-target households. Approximately 181,168
birds/ducks were vaccinated by the 198 vaccinators, which contributed to reduced mortality rates in
the JOJ working areas.

7. Sustainability
Is this intervention sustainable in the long-term, socially, financially and environmentally? Please
describe the steps the intervention took to ensure services or impacts will be sustained over the long
term, and the role of local partners or the beneficiary community in continuing the intervention.
The intervention is by definition sustainable, as teaching proper breeding, hatching, and vaccination
practices gives the beneficiaries the tools, skills, and assets to maintain healthy flocks. Data from the
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projects show that the vast majority of beneficiaries reserve a portion of their eggs for hatching, and
flock sizes increase over the course of the projects.

Training and linking the vaccinators to the Department of Livestock Services ensures a sustainable
supply of knowledge and vaccine, which keep local poultry flocks healthier and minimizes the threat of
communicable diseases. The training on the benefits of vaccination generates demand for vaccination
services, as evidenced by the fact that beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries alike are willing to pay the
vaccinators for their outreach services. With the demonstrated skills and knowledge, the vaccinators
have been able to earn the trust from the greater community in the vaccination business. This has
fostered a self sustaining business process for most of the vaccinators in the project area. Some of the
poultry vaccinators are occasionally hired as trainers for local level sharing and orientation sessions by
other agencies.

Working with local partner NGOs, HKI ensures that the knowledge of the improved practices remains in
the communities even after the phase-out of a given project.

8. Challenges & Lessons Learned

What challenges or obstacles did you face and how were they addressed? What are the most important
lessons a reader should take from this practice?
Following this IPP method to promote use of local varieties of chickens can be a hindrance to projects
that need to distribute massive quantities of poultry in a short period of time. These healthier local
breeds are not available in large quantities in the regional markets; organizations wishing to distribute
poultry as part of asset transfer should keep in mind that the time frame for poultry distribution will be
longer when staff need to procure poultry from local breeders.

HKI set up small refrigerators for vaccine storage in the partner NGO offices. However, frequent power
outages can disrupt the cold chain and risk contamination of the vaccine. It is critical to regularly
monitor vaccine storage systems and practices and to test vaccine for efficacy. Vaccinators should
procure the vaccine in relatively small quantities at a time to keep the batch fresh and at the
appropriate temperature.

During 2006-2008, there have been outbreaks of Avian Influenza in Bangladesh that threaten the
poultry program and disrupted poultry distribution processes. However, HKI took the initiative to
ensure bio-security at the community level, by holding mass training on the use of disinfectant,
maintaining hygiene, proper vaccination, and recognizing signs of disease. These precautionary
measures minimized the avian influenza threat, and no avian influenza cases were reported in the
project areas. Again, HKI exclusively promotes local breeds, which are more resistant to disease and
infection.

9. Enabling Factors & Recommendations

What factors were critical to the success of the intervention? What should others know about this
intervention before replicating it elsewhere?
Strong linkages to the Department of Livestock Services are critical for ensuring an adequate supply of
vaccine within the communities. In the Jibon-O-Jibika Project, 198 ultra-poor community vaccinators
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were trained and provided with equipment and supplies. Furthermore, they were provided with official
name tags and passes, so that they can continue to access the DLS offices after the phase-out of the
project.

The list of the vaccinators were provided to the DLS and other relevant organizations at the same time
the contact details of service providing agencies were provided to the vaccinators. Additionally, a
booklet is being currently printed with the contact details and photographs of the vaccinators for wide
circulation to government and other agencies.

10. Replicability/Adaptability
Has this intervention been successfully replicated or adapted in another setting? If so, where, when and
by whom?
The IPP strategy has been applied in very diverse regions of Bangladesh, including the Chittagong Hill
Tracts; the northern Chars; and the cyclone-prone, food-insecure Coastal Belt. In HKI’s USAID-funded
Jibon-O-Jibika, 26,000 beneficiaries in 11 sub-districts of the Coastal Belt received poultry training and
support; in the Char 2 Project (funded by Oxfam Novib), 10,000 beneficiaries from the flood-prone char
areas participated; and in the Oxfam Novib-funded CHT Homestead Food Production Project, 10,000
beneficiaries from multiple tribal groups were trained on the improved techniques. The type of shed
and materials for the shed may be adapted from place to place, depending on the costs and availability
of construction materials such as bamboo.

The intervention has been most successful (in terms of increases in egg production) in areas of
Bangladesh such as the Chittagong Hill Tracts, were poultry have more space to roam, have readily
available insects and grasses to eat, and where avian influenza has been less prevalent.

In addition to creating a cadre of local vaccinators, HKI would recommend building the capacity of a
few small-scale farmers to focus exclusively on poultry breeding at the community level. This will
generate significant income for these specialized farmers and will ensure a healthy, adequate supply of
local-variety hens and chicks for procurement purposes.

i
http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/133/11/3941S
ii
http://www.research4development.info/PDF/Outputs/HPAI/IFPRI_ILRI_rbr02.pdf
iii
SARKAR, K., MUSTAFA, G., and BELL, J. G. (2006), New Approaches-from A Model to Learning Approach
(Reference to Bangladesh Poultry Model). Department of Livestock Services, Farmgate, Bangladesh.
iv
sapplpp.org/goodpractices/folder-for-related-files/BDGP01-gpbrief.pdf
vv
http://scialert.net/pdfs/jbs/2002/212-213.pdf