Status: Ongoing since 2012
Beneficiaries to date: 338
The project targets mainly rural unemployed women who bear the burden of feeding and caring for their families while their menfolk travel to urban areas in in search of employment. The program trains the women on improved poultry production practices and organizes them into effective marketing networks that links into urban markets. Beneficiaries initially receive a 4 day training course on managing poultry as an income-generating enterprise at Latia. They are provided with a start-up kit of 10 chicks, necessary vaccines and some feed for the first 3 months. Latia staff then continue to monitor the health of the chicken flocks and regularly visits the villages to train beneficiaries on home-based prevention and control of poultry pests and diseases.
This program was started in 2012 and by the end of 2013 had benefited 245 poor rural households in Kenya. The program targets mainly rural unemployed women who bear the burden of feeding and caring for their families while their menfolk travel to urban areas in in search of employment. The program trains the women on improved poultry production practices and organizes them into effective marketing networks that links into urban markets. The program’s goal is to help women generate income and provide high quality food nutrients to their families on a sustainable basis.
Beneficiaries under this program initially received a 4-day training course on managing poultry as an income-generating activity at Latia Resource Center. Participants are given practical advice on how to raise their chicken and after the training each beneficiary is provided with a start-up kit of 12 chicks, necessary vaccines and some feed for the first 3 months.
The trained beneficiaries receive further support in establishing their chicken enterprises once they return to their villages from the Center’s extension team. 
The Center has a qualified Veterinary who continues monitoring the health of the chicken flocks and regularly visits the villages to treat sick chicken as well as to train farmers on home-based prevention and control of pests and diseases. . The trained farmers later pass-on breeding stock (to honour their in-kind loan) to newly trained farmers to ensure program expansion.
The program beneficiaries are organized into poultry producer groups and for each group a lead farmer is selected to coordinate the activities of the group. After the initial 3 months training and direct support contact between the groups and the Center is maintained through the lead farmer who is regularly trained and supported to provide vaccination and treatment to the group members chicken and get paid a fee for the service. The Center has recently started mobilizing the producer groups into a cooperative to facilitate joint marketing of chicken to improve returns to the farmers. The cooperative will also encourage savings among members and improve access to credit for inputs required in the production of chicken.
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