Group to improve Africa’s chicken production

The African Chicken Genetic Gains (ACGG) Project has said it is committed to improving productivity and increase profit in smallholder chicken production in sub-Saharan Africa, especially since past efforts had little impact because of the unsuitability of the exotic breeds for scavenging systems.

The project, a sub-Saharan Africa programme, led by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is being implemented in three African countries; Nigeria, Ethiopia and Tanzania.

In Nigeria, the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife is the partnering institution leading this Research for Development (R4D) project.  The vision of the African Chicken Genetic Gains – Nigeria (ACGG – NG) is to transform smallholder chicken production into commercially viable enterprise with active private sector engagement that empowers rural women, increases income and nutrition of their family through delivery of more productive locally adaptable chicken, production inputs and services to rural communities

ACGG will deploy highly productive improved Tropically Adapted Germplasms (iTAG) across five agro-ecological zones in Nigeria and determine their productivity and adaptability to the low-input systems of the smallholder farmers.

At the just concluded 2nd National Innovation Platform, the ACGG Program Leader, Dr Tadelle Dessie described the long-term genetic gains objective of the project for developing tropically adapted and farmer preferred chickens for sustainable productivity growth in sub-Saharan Africa.  According to the Principal Investigator, ACGG-NG, Prof. Funso Sonaiya, understanding the role of the smallholder chicken production system, as a tool for income generation is fundamental to creating a functional Livestock Innovation Management framework.  In his presentation, he highlighted some strategic and operational questions that facilitate the identification of technical constraints and interventions appropriate for the effective management of livestock innovation.