What's happening...
A novel approach in Mchinji
Annie is from Kangwere Zone in Mchinji. A widow, mother of two, and grandmother of six, she is the head of a household where seven children attend school. She told us that she has 13 adult chickens, seven of which have chicks like this one. She first started vaccinating her chickens against Newcastle disease last August, when RPC brought the know-how to her village.
We have teamed up with LUANAR (Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources - Bunda campus) to pilot a novel approach to marketing strategies for village poultry in Mchinji. The mechanism utilises a select group of farmers ("mother units") who purchase day-old-chicks and grow them out under well managed conditions to on-sell to grower farmers. Incubation of village chicken eggs takes place at Bunda. This action is possible through the generosity of Friends of Malawi, a nonprofit organization founded in 1987 by Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who had served in Malawi.
Current strong commercial interest in 'local chicken' gives hope that wider adoption of a successful marketing strategy could give significant benefits to rural producers.
In addition, RPC is seeking to strengthen the Dzithandizeni Women's Group through building up their capacity to deliver the I-2 Newcastle disease vaccine to chicken owners in their communities. I'll tell you more about that next time.
Pat Boland
18 December 2017
