In Bangladesh, the FAO Upazila to Community (U2C) initiative believes that by giving training on vaccination, biosecurity and surveillance to women, who are usually the custodians of livestock, it is possible to improve livestock health and ensure food security in their communities.

In rural areas across the country, family-based poultry production plays multiple roles: improving nutrition, as it produces meat and eggs for home consumption; incrementing earnings, through sale of eggs and birds; and bringing social recognition to entrepreneurs, as well as confidence in vaccinators. Daily income from the sale of even one egg can have a substantial impact on very poor families’ livelihoods.

Furthermore, experience shows that the entire family benefits more from income belonging to women than to men. Family poultry production can empower women, especially if they are responsible for poultry vaccination and are able to provide livestock farming advice to their communities.

This happened with Helena, a 35-year-old poultry farmer, wife and mother-of-three, who became a community vaccinator after taking the training delivered by an Upazila livestock officer. Helena has reared poultry in her homestead for years. Poultry is her source income and the money earned from selling birds and eggs remains under her control. She uses the money to meet simple requests by her three children and to contribute to family expenditures; a small amount remains for herself.