Poultry

Project studies done on the poultry value chain in four West African countries (Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Mali), complemented by a six-country Avian Influenza (AI) assessment (plus Senegal and Nigeria) led the project to focus on the modern, rather than traditional, poultry sector.  Participants in that sector     are more progressive, and more amenable to change and to making improvements that comply with regional and international animal health and biosecurity standards.

Despite this sector’s relative sophistication, there remain significant challenges to the intra-regional trade in poultry.  These include an inadequate supply of day-old-chicks (DOC) and eggs to hatch (ETH); irregular access to, and high cost of, feed; limited access to quality veterinary products leading to high poultry morbidity and mortality; limited access to finance; and the ban on poultry exports from West African countries that experienced AI outbreaks in 2006.  USAID E-ATP was instrumental in lifting that ban between Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso, and is working with stakeholders to do the same in other West African countries.

The strategy of the poultry value chain is to establish close partnerships with regional private sector organizations, which offer the best prospects for sustainability and for facilitating trade beyond the life of the USAID E-ATP project.  USAID E-ATP concentrates on:

•    Closely collaborating with USAID bilateral (country) projects and regional programs;
•    Raising trade policy and regulatory issues with regional and national authorities;
•    Strengthening regional and national inter-professional and producer organizations;
•    Awarding grants selectively to those organizations so they can respond to members’ needs, lobby for policy and regulatory reform, and diffuse market information and information about poultry disease prevention and control, especially AI.

In all our interventions, we are committed to gender equity and to mitigating adverse environmental effects.