A. Traorœ

In sub-Saharan Africa, livestock development policies have been strongly inspired by cattle production up to the occurrence of 1972 and 1976 terrible draught episodes in Sahelian countries. In the years 1980's, new livestock development policies with the development of short-cycle animals, especially poultry, as key elements have been launched. Besides, the commercial poultry sector, which is no longer financially viable due to its strong dependence on external inputs (drugs and food ingredients), has shown its limits. This incites policy makers and development partners to encourage and support the development of traditional or family poultry production. This subsistence sector is a privileged instrument in the struggle against food shortage (Branckaert, 1995; Traor®, 1998).

Smallholder poultry production development programs are generally accessible to the most vulnerable target groups, and some countries such as Burkina Faso and Togo have been working in building up these poultry development programs to real community promotion projects that pay special attention to ­Gender-developmentŠ issues (Anonymous, 1997; Ouandaogo, 1997).

Though the great majority of these programs and projects are still being carried out, we can already learn some lessons that may be of interest to initiators of similar programs.

Based on experiences from Burkina Faso, Togo and Mali, the objective of this paper is to initiate a debate around the required conditions for a development of family poultry.

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a) Database
In many African countries, the problem of reliable statistics is the major constraint to appropriate planning and programming for family poultry development programs. As it was pointed out during the two latest workshops of the former ANRPD, now INFPD, in Ethiopia (1995) and Senegal (1996), the numbers and sizes of flocks per poultry species as well as the main production parameters under husbandry conditions are not well-known. The existing data on poultry are mainly limited to chickens; ducks and other poultry species are less known (Kuit et al., 1986; Anonymous, 1995; FAO, 1995).

The INFPD will provide a harmonized data collection and evaluation methodologies (census, classical surveys, accelerated participatory research method). With this in view, training handbooks have already been published under the supervision of ANFPD (Aklobessi et al., 1993)

b) Intervention strategy
Targeted interventions carried out under the support of development partners have been noted in many countries. These countries have asserted their firm intention to conduct appropriate national programs aiming at the development of traditional poultry farming. Such programs were successfully carried out in Burkina Faso (Ouandaogo, 1997).

Within the framework of its Special Program for Food Security, the FAO is assisting many countries in the formulation and implementation of national family poultry development policies (FAO, 1997; Traor®, 1998). These programs are generally initiated within the context of a short-cycle animal development policy.

Intervention strategies are mainly based on:
- disease control, especially the Newcastle disease;
- improvement of poultry housing with the diffusion of improved poultry houses;
- genetic improvement of local chickens by crossing with exotic breeds.

In some countries like Burkina-Faso, Togo, Guinea and Senegal, this strategy is accompanied by an important training component for peasant poultry keepers. These peasants pay for part of poultry health care costs. The programs also host activities for the empowerment of women, who are the main stakeholders and beneficiaries of family poultry development (Burkina, Togo, Mali).

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a) Access to services and technical support
The access to services and technical support is essential for the success and the durability of deployed actions. This access is seen in both the existence of service performers and the cost of the performed services. Technical support has so far been provided by the government through its extension services, they were free of charge for poultry keepers. Prophylactic cares (vaccination, control of parasites, etc.) and therapeutic cares are charged. These cares are given either by state agents or by private veterinarians.

The so called in some countries "village vaccinators" or "village auxiliaries", which are newly trained poultry keepers, have shown their willingness to perform poultry health cares themselves. The NGO "V®t®rinaires Sans Frontińres" has made valuable efforts in the training of village para-veterinarians (Senegal, Togo).

In Togo, a total of 750 "village auxiliaries" were trained between 1992 and 1996. Their intervention have caused a significant rise in vaccination figures which jumped from 20,000 in 1992 up to more than 594,000 birds in 1996 (Anonymous, 1997). It is important to notice, from the example of Togo, that these auxiliaries, which were first considered as rivals and rejected by private veterinarians, have become presently their best helpers in interventions in rural areas. The auxiliaries allow private veterinarians to reach villages birds (Traor®, 1997; Badj® and Bebay, 1998). The performing of this kind of service needs to be regulated and controlled in order to avoid possible misuse. In Togo, for instance, animal husbandry and veterinary services have reported cases of clandestine vaccinations.

Villagers have suffered heavy losses after such vaccinations, but it has never been proved that they were PNPE trained auxiliaries. The PNPE experience in Togo, shows that the most important thing in conducting such a strategy is that:
- the auxiliary should be elected by his own community;
- the geographical area of intervention must be limited;
- the technical gestures and animal species must be specified;
- the auxiliary must, if possible, work in pair with a private or governmental veterinarian.

The use of the syringe is still indispensable because of the quite exclusive use of injectable thermostable vaccines (e.g. ITA New). This may soon change with encouraging results obtained from trials carried out for the diffusion of the thermostable vaccine with ocular and nasal application (Spradbrow and Copland, 1995; Spradbrow and Grimes, 1997).

b) Problems of access to inputs
In contrast with the commercial poultry production, family poultry does not require much investment. The main inputs are medicines (e.g. vaccines and parasiticides), building materials and equipment for improved poultry houses, exotic poultry breeds and, to a lesser extent, food. The problem of access to these inputs comes up at two levels:
- the non-availability of the products and
- their cost

Taking the particular case of medicines, village veterinary drugstores have appeared in some countries such as Togo, where the training of village auxiliaries was accompanied by the creation of peasant managed veterinary drugstores (Anonymous,1997)

The increasing cost of medicines is a serious obstacle to the development of family poultry. Therefore, research efforts to develop traditional pharmacopoeia must be undertaken and/or pursued. Access to inputs will be facilitated with the setting-up of a decentralized credit policy in which rural community must be strongly involved. This may be sustained by targeted aid approaches which comes in addition to personal contributions, as was experimented in Togo (Anonymous, 1997).

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As it is pointed out by Ouandaogo (1997) in a study on rural poultry development in Burkina Faso, the organization in family poultry production is not an easy task. The fact that this poultry production is family oriented must be taken into account. Access to services, inputs, the information and training for poultry keepers should be designed accordingly. The processing and marketing of poultry products can be the next services to be addressed by poultry keepers organizations.

The difficulty of access to services and inputs motivates the setting-up of organizations. Most village poultry development programs have therefore encouraged the emergence of "service groups", which can exploit the services of a village auxiliary as it is the case in Burkina-Faso and Togo. The management village veterinary drugstores funds, as it was initiated in Togo, has required the creation of management structures such as management and control committees.

The organization into "production groups" is particularly noticed among women and young people in villages. Poultry keeping is considered there as a "group business", the aim being principally to generate additional income. Besides the community unit, each member of the group has his own individual mixed poultry, which is generally used for his numerous social obligations (gifts, sacrifices, etc.)

Taking into account the social and cultural problems posed by the individual training of a woman in rural areas, the group approach becomes often the unavoidable strategy. This may be taken into profit to develop other activities aiming at empowering women (access to credit, alphabetisation campaign, etc.).

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The necessity for poultry keepers to be trained is fully acknowledged by every project and family poultry development program. Objectives are the improvement of the peasants' ability to take charge of the management related problems and the improvement of their backyard poultry production system.

In some countries like Togo and Burkina-Faso the training allows smallholders to perform technical gestures that are so far reserved to veterinarians such as the use of the syringe (vaccination against Newcastle disease). Such decisions have to be taken by governments, only after a proper evaluation of the capacity of the conventional staff (private or state veterinarians) to satisfy the demand for health care at efficient cost.

However, the practice of para-veterinarian activities must necessarily be properly regulated (i.e. statutes, "recruitment" methods, training program, etc.) and strictly controlled (i.e. intervention scale, technical support, etc.). As it is mentioned above, the application of the thermostable vaccine, which does not necessitate any injection (Spradbrow and Crimes, 1997), will probably be the solution to this delicate problem.

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There will be a constant need for research and development activities. These activities have to continue improving and validating methodology approaches that are indispensable to correctly identify obstacles and potentials. Thus development actions can be better targeted and evaluated. INFPD can contribute to the elaboration and the diffusion of such tools.

Current efforts to develop thermostable vaccines, which are easy to administrate, must be encouraged. Because of the great importance of the Newcastle disease in avian pathology, epidemiological surveys must be pursued and extended to other species. The diffusion of improved poultry houses should take into account the acute problem of Argas sp. infestation as it was reported in Togo and Mali.

Considering the high cost of imported veterinary products, traditional pharmacopoeia should be more investigated in therapeutic research with a view to exploiting it in a larger scale, especially in the control of coccidiosis and helminthiasis as well as the control of insects in poultry houses. Interesting experimental results are reported in Benin (Songho” project), in Senegal (Guńye, 1997) and in Togo (Am®g®e, 1997, personal communication).

With regard to feeding aspects, research on alternative protein (termites, maggots) and energy sources must be pursued. Regarding the evaluation of genetic resources of poultry, a systematic characterization of local types should be done. Very little work has yet been done on this field and efforts should be undertaken.

The research activities mentioned above could make profit of the important opportunity offered by existing information and research networks (e.g. INFPD), universities and their research institutes (e.g. Hohenheim, Queenland, Nigeria, etc.), international co-operation agencies (e.g. FAO, CTA, IDRC, etc.) as well as NGOs (e.g. VSF).

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The development of family poultry production has become an important element in social and economic development strategies in many developing countries. It is particularly used in the struggle against poverty and food shortage and in policies that aim at empowering rural women.

The success of a family poultry development program requires the following conditions:

• a good database (i.e. good identification of obstacles and potentials);

• a good intervention strategy (i.e. intervention scale, intervention area, technical approach, participation of the target population, necessity to take in account ­gender and developmentŠ issues);

• appropriate accompanying measures (e.g. access to technical support and to inputs, research-development and training activities, processing and marketing of poultry products).

As other favourable development factors, it is necessary to make use of national, regional and international co-operation. Information and research networks, South-South and North-South co-operation programs must also be developed and better exploited.

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Am®gee, Y. (1997): Communication personnelle

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