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“I’m planning to grow more turkeys for my flock, to add even more income for my family,” says Piran, one of 1,250 women who received poultry from the FAO Recovery of Agriculture Based Livelihoods of Vulnerable Farmers Affected by 2012 Floods

Fifty-year old Piran Hatoon has nine children, the youngest of whom is barely five, while the oldest – 23 years old. Piran lives in Majno Khan Bahalakani Village in Kashmore District of Sindh. Her husband Majinoo Khan earns living by growing rice and wheat on a rented 3-acre piece of land, but the money is always short.

Life became even tougher when their village was hit by the floods in the summer of 2012.  Most of the family’s rice crop was destroyed by the standing water, and they did not even have enough yield to cover the loan they had taken to buy the seed earlier in the year.  Piran and her husband were barely scraping one meal a day for their large family and had no idea how to escape the dire situation.

When the DFID-funded FAO floods relief project reached Piran’s village, the family was identified among those in most need for support. To address the food shortage the family was facing, the project provided two turkeys – a hen and a cockerel – to Piran and taught her how to take care of the birds. Additionally, the project team helped the community to make arrangements whereby one of the neighbors would collect the eggs and sell them in a nearby town of Kandhkot. Much like in many other areas of rural Sindh, women are traditionally not supposed to leave their family compound in Majno Khan Bahalakani Village, and without these arrangements, Piran would not have been able to sell the eggs.

The hen now lays 7-8 eggs a month. With assistance from her neighbors, Piran sells these eggs to shop keepers in the nearby town, at 70 Rupees (US$0.7) per egg and earns approximately 500 Rupees (US$5) each month. Piran uses the money to buy medication and similar necessities for the family.

“The FAO project team has also taught me how to hatch the eggs, and in the nearest future, I am planning to grow more turkeys for my flock,” says Piran who is among 1,250 women who received chicken or turkeys from the project as an additional source of nutrition and income. “Then, I will be able to add even more money to my family income,” she adds.