Utilization of the guinea fowl and Tswana chicken packages of the Livestock Management and Infrastructure Development Support Scheme, Botswana

J C Moreki, M Thutwa, K Ntesang, O Koloka and T Ipatleng

Department of Animal Production, Ministry of Agriculture, P/Bag 0032, Gaborone, Botswana
jcmoreki@gmail.com

Abstract

Secondary sources of data on the poultry packages (Tswana chickens and guinea fowl) of the resource poor component of Livestock Management and Infrastructure Development (LIMID) scheme were evaluated to ascertain the performance of these packages from April 2007 to March 2010.

In the past three years, the sum of BWP 13 246 722 (an equivalent of USD  1 871 006) was used to purchase 40 608 birds (i.e., 36 373 Tswana chickens and 4235 guinea fowl) for 1816 LIMID beneficiaries across the country. In this study, 1957 Tswana chicken applications were approved and 1583 (80.9%) beneficiaries have already utilized their grants. Similarly, 233 (90.3%) guinea fowl projects were established out of the 258 applications that were approved. On average the population of Tswana chickens and guinea fowl increased by 36.8% and 36.22%, respectively. In both packages, the main beneficiaries are women indicating that village poultry play a key role in addressing issues of gender imbalances.

These results suggest that poultry is contributing to poverty alleviation, improved food security and economic empowerment, especially in women.

Keywords: Food security, guinea fowl, poverty, resource-poor, Tswana chickens

Introduction

A number of initiatives have been put in place by government to address poverty in the rural areas of Botswana. Currently, government initiatives that are geared towards poverty reduction include Remote Area Dweller Programme (RADP), drought relief programme (also known as namola leuba) and Livestock Management and Infrastructure Development (LIMID). Presently, initiatives that support livestock rearing are RADP and LIMID. According to Botswana Institute for Policy Development Analysis (BIDPA) (2003), Botswana has a strong cultural tradition in livestock and extensive livestock support system. Under RADP adults in remote area settlements are entitled to either five cattle or 15 goats. On the other hand, LIMID provides support to resource-poor and youths to rear up to 30 goats or 25 chickens/guinea fowl (Ministry of Agriculture, 2006). These initiatives are in accordance with Millennium Development Goal No.1 (to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger) (United Nations 2010) and pillars 2 and 3 (a prosperous, productive and innovative nation, as well as, a compassionate, just and caring nation) of Botswana’s Vision 2016 (Vision 2016 1997).

The LIMID support scheme was formed after the two livestock programmes: Services to Livestock Owners in Communal Areas (SLOCA) and Livestock Water Development Programme (LWDP) were reviewed and merged. The review was prompted by growing concerns of the poor performance of the agricultural sector over the past decades despite considerable public sector investment (Centre for Applied Research 2002). The objectives of LIMID are to promote food security through improved productivity of cattle and smallstock, to improve livestock management, to improve range resource utilization and conservation, to eliminate destitution by providing resources to the poor and to provide infrastructure for safe and hygienic processing of poultry products (Ministry of Agriculture 2006).

According to Ministry of Agriculture (2006), LIMID has two components: resource-poor and infrastructure development. The resource-poor component comprises guinea fowl, Tswana chickens and smallstock. On the other hand, the infrastructure development component include animal husbandry and fodder support, borehole/well equipping, borehole drilling, water reticulation, borehole/well purchase, as well as, cooperative poultry abattoirs. The LIMID scheme is available only to Botswana citizens aged ≥18 years (Ministry of Agriculture 2006). The purpose of the resource-poor component is to eliminate poverty by providing resources to the resource-poor who are expected to care for livestock to enable their multiplication. The maximum grants for Tswana chickens and guinea fowl are BWP10 000 (USD1412) and BWP17 000 (USD2401), respectively. These packages are for Botswana citizens who own up to four (4) cattle or up to 20 sheep/goats or should earn up to BWP150 (USD21) per month with dependents or BWP120 (USD16) per month without dependents. To qualify for 90% grant, an applicant should own 11 to 20 goats/sheep or 3 to 4 cattle and 0 to 10 goats/sheep or 1 to 2 cattle for 100% grant.

Botswana is divided into 10 districts (Table 1). Central district is the largest while South East is the smallest. Similarly, Central district has the largest human population than other districts mainly due to its size. The human population of Botswana is estimated to be 1.8 million.

Poverty levels in Botswana are high and the most vulnerable groups are women and children. In addition, Botswana is one of the countries of the world with high HIV/AIDS prevalence rates. Mack et al (2005) states that the objective of reducing poverty cannot be achieved by one single intervention and, in isolation as no single activity will have a major impact. However, livestock especially poultry species have demonstrated to provide a practical and effective first step in alleviating poverty. Therefore, literature on the LIMID scheme was evaluated over a three year period (from 1^st April 2007 to March 2010) to ascertain the performance of the resource-poor component.

Secondary sources of data from the districts and Ministry of Agriculture (Headquarters) were examined. Data were analysed using Microsoft Excel. Descriptive statistics such as mean and percentages were used to summarize and present results.

Tswana chickens 

Data on Tswana chickens are presented in Tables 2 and 3. Table 2 shows that out of 1957 projects approved, 1583 beneficiaries (1317 females and 266 males) used their grants to establish Tswana chicken projects across the districts. This clearly indicates that the majority of the beneficiaries of the chicken projects are women (83.20%) compared to 16.80% for men.

This result is in agreement with Moreki (2003) who reported that in Botswana Tswana chickens are generally regarded as livestock that women raise mainly because they are perceived to be of less commercial value than other livestock such as cattle, goats and sheep. Generally, in Botswana men tend to be responsible for cattle and larger animals and women for smaller animals such as sheep, goats and poultry. Alders et al (2005) in Mozambique also reported that raising village chickens plays a vital role in many households, and is usually a female activity. Swatson et al (2001) in Kwazulu-Natal in South Africa reported that village chickens are kept mainly for food security. The study of Moreki et al (2010a) in Chobe district of Botswana reported the main reasons for rearing village chickens to be family consumption (75%), source of income (75%), prestige (36%), traditional ceremonies (6.82%) and barter (6.82%). These findings show that village poultry have a bearing in the lives of rural populace.

In this study, Kweneng district has a high number of applicants (840) followed by Central and Southern districts with 515 and 226, respectively. A total of 36 373 Tswana chickens (including those used to incubate guinea fowl eggs indicated in Table 3) were purchased at a cost of BWP11 292 114 (USD 1 594 931). On average each beneficiary received 23.66 birds.

Chobe district did not benefit from the LIMID scheme with respect to Tswana chickens and guinea fowl probably because of lack of representation of the Department of Animal Production (DAP) in the district. Chobe has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the country (Central Statistics Office (CSO) 2009), indicating that the rearing of Tswana chickens is appropriate in order to improve households’ nutrition and food security in the district. Recent statistics show that Selebi Phikwe has the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rate (26.5%) followed by Sowa (25.4%), Francistown (23.1%) and Chobe (23%) (CSO 2009).

Overall chickens increased by 36.77% from 35720 to 48853. As shown in Table 3, Tswana chickens declined by 26.86% and 16.04% in Southern and South East districts, respectively probably due to poor management which resulted in disease outbreaks particularly, Newcastle disease. The highest increase (162.02%) was observed in Central district. Although Kweneng district received more birds than other districts, the chickens increased by only one percent. This slight increase may be attributable to poor management and increased sales because of the district’s proximity to Gaborone (the capital city) where prices of chickens are high.

Guinea fowl 

Table 4 shows that guinea fowl package is dominated by Central District followed by Southern and Kweneng districts, respectively. As in the case of Tswana chickens, this package was not utilized by Chobe district while Gantsi and Kgatleng districts has the least number of beneficiaries.

Guinea fowl increased over time from 4235 to 5769. This represents an increase of 36.22% compared to 36.77% for chickens. Southern, Kgatleng, Kgalagadi and North West districts did not have an increase in the number of guinea fowl. Furthermore, 653 chickens were purchased to incubate guinea fowl eggs. However, no chickens were bought for the beneficiaries in Kgatleng and North West districts, implying that guinea fowl hens incubated their eggs or artificial incubators were used. Similarly, chicken hens that were used to incubate chicken eggs increased from 653 to 1160, representing an increase of 77.64%.

A total of 233 (157 females and 76 males) beneficiaries across the country utilized the guinea fowl package. On average each beneficiary received 18.18 guinea fowl. Like in the case of Tswana chickens, women (67.38%) benefitted more than males (32.61%) probably because poultry is still regarded as womenfolk stock in Botswana. The findings of this study are in agreement with Alders et al (2005) who reported that in Sub-Saharan Africa most of the smallholder production is done by women and up to one-third of the rural households are headed by women. However, the participation of men in guinea fowl production is likely to increase as the enterprise gets commercialised.

As mentioned earlier, on average guinea fowl population increased by 36.22 (Table 5).

The highest increase was observed in North East district followed by Central and Kweneng districts, respectively. The reasons for the 375.19% increase in guinea fowl population in North East observed in Table 5 are unknown. However, the increase might be due to good management practices adopted by rearers and possibly additional financial assistance given by the mining industry in the area as a way of giving back to the community. A decline in guinea fowl population was observed in North West, Kgalagadi, Kgatleng and Southern districts. According to Table 5, the highest decline occurred in Kgatleng and North West districts probably because guinea fowl were allowed to incubate their eggs due to unavailability of artificial incubators or chicken hens. Unlike other districts, beneficiaries in Kgatleng and North West districts did not purchase chickens to incubate guinea fowl eggs (Table 5). Moreki (2009) contends that guinea fowl are poor sitters and hence fewer keets are hatched under natural incubation. In a recent study, Moreki et al (2010b) attributed failure by farmers to increase guinea fowl population to poor husbandry management due to inadequacy of extension service. Therefore, in order to raise productivity of guinea fowl there is need for the extension service to intensify training of farmers in poultry management.

As shown in Table 6, Kweneng district used the largest proportion of the LIMID grant (39.24%) followed by Central (26.77%), Southern (13.58%) and South East (6.30%) districts. Gantsi district utilized only BWP66 649.00 (0.5%) of the total grant making it the least beneficiary of LIMID funds.

The low use of LIMID grant in Gantsi could be due to the fact that the district is one of the major cattle producing areas in the country giving rise to chickens having low commercial value. Again, this probably indicates that the LIMID scheme was not extensively publicised in the district or that the poultry packages are not appropriate for the district. As mentioned earlier, Chobe district did not benefit from LIMID scheme with respect to poultry packages.

Conclusions 

• Women formed the majority of the beneficiaries of the guinea fowl and Tswana chicken projects, indicating that LIMID scheme plays an important role in poverty alleviation, food security and economic empowerment.

  
  

• Generally, the populations of Tswana chickens and guinea fowl increased across the districts. Over a three year period, Tswana chickens and guinea fowl increased by 36.8% and 36.2%, respectively.

  
  

•  Guinea fowl increased by 375% in North East District while a decline was observed in Southern, Kgalagadi and North West districts. Furthermore, the population of Tswana chickens declined in Southern and South East districts. The decline in bird population points to poor farmer management due to inadequacy of extension service.

  
  

•  Further research is needed to ascertain the impact of LIMID scheme on poverty alleviation/eradication.

Acknowledgement 

The LIMID scheme beneficiaries and extension staff are sincerely thanked for supplying the data used in this review.

References 

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Moreki J C, Mokokwe J, Keboneilwe D and Koloka O 2010b Evaluation of the livestock management and infrastructure development support scheme in seven districts of Botswana. Livestock Research for Rural Development 22(5). Retrieved August 07, 2010, from  http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd22/5/more22087.htm

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Received 13 August 2010; Accepted 17 August 2010; Published 1 November 2010

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