Abstract:
Poverty and food insecurity are widespread in developing countries around the world.
Sub-Saharan Africa which accounts for approximately one quarter of the world’s
poor has acute food insecurity in Central, East and Southern Africa. Poverty has
multiple dimensions characterised by the inability of individuals, households or entire
communities to access sufficient assets to sustain a socially acceptable standard of
living. By improving their asset status households can become more resilient to
external shocks through increased options for livelihoods. This paper examines the
scaling-up of traditional family poultry systems as a possible livelihood strategy to
reduce poverty and food insecurity in peri-urban communities in South Africa.
Participative action research methodologies revealed small-scale broiler enterprises
as the preferred poultry system. Through business incubation, trainee entrepreneurs
from the community demonstrated abilities to manage scaled-up broiler systems
profitably over four successive cycles of production and marketing. Participation in
the broiler enterprise enabled entrepreneurs to accumulate a range of assets which
contributed to improving their income and food security status. Improvements in
household food security were achieved directly through the increased availability of
poultry meat and indirectly through increased cash incomes to acquire other
foodstuffs. At the community level, localised benefits included the increased
availability of fresh poultry meat and the income effects derived from more
competitive retail pricing. The paper concludes that further research is required to
determine the viability of different scales of production that could be managed within
the framework of local culture and access to resources.
