African Chicken Genetic Gains
Audience analysis/ message development
Achievement of ACGG goals: steps
Steps to achieve objective one: Increase access of poor smallholder farmers to high-producing but agro-ecologically appropriate chicken products:
- Understand the poultry production system in Ethiopia
- Identify the needs of Ethiopian poultry farmers
- Identify the strains poultry preferred by Ethiopia farmers
- Test the identified poultry strains on station
- Take the findings of the most productive and preferred poultry to the private sector and test again on farm
- Developing an improvement, multiplication and delivery system.
- Establish a functioning innovation platforms at different levels (national, sub-national and community level)
Steps to achieve objective two: catalyse public-private partnerships which promote sustainable and more productive market-orientated growth
- Identify stakeholders involved in the process and understand their interests
- Identify the linkages with the interests of the stakeholders and the opportunities
- Establish the local, regional and national innovation platforms. The members of the innovation platforms have a key role in catalyzing private-public partnerships, as some farmers are expected to take some preferred chicken strains and begin multiplying their production through the improvement of parent stock and long-term investment.
- Develop a work plan for the innovation platforms and follow up to ensure they are implemented: defining roles of both public and private sectors actors and the opportunities for both
- Provide capacity building support and training to private sector farmers. The public sector has a role in supporting the still weak private sector through support, training and rules.
- Oversee the hatching and breeding of more preferred and productive poultry
Stakeholders key to the success of the objective
- Market-orientated smallholder poultry farmers
- Medium–large private poultry farmers Private sector farmers
- Input suppliers: feed, chicks, healthcare, veterinary services etc.
- Research institutes
- Government ministries: livestock, agriculture etc.
- Extension system
- Traders
- Donors
Priority stakeholders, success with whom may catalyse other stakeholders into action
- Extension function of the national research system
- Market-orientated smallholder poultry farmers
- Medium–large-scale private poultry farmers
Key stakeholder-communication analysis
Extension function of the national research system
Extension workers want to know the objectives of ACGG and how it can help the bureaus of agriculture achieve their objectives, how the program will benefit smallholder poultry farmers, achieve its outcomes. They are interested in the ongoing achievements and outputs of ACGG. They are listening to ACGG because they see them as specialists with unique knowledge and are motivated by their belief in partnerships and finding synergies with ACGG. While they are very familiar with scientific terminology, they may not understand business terms or acronyms. The sources of information they are interested in from ACGG will vary as the program progresses, from secondary information from the ACGG experts to primary research findings as the project progresses. Extension workers are potentially highly engaged in the program as they have the systems and structures to make it a success. However, motivated by the desire for partnership with ACGG, they would react negatively if they were not consulted or if they felt their role was not recognized. While communication with this group would at times be formal and informal, it should never be dictatorial. Their preferred media communication would be face-to-face, email and by telephone.
Market-orientated smallholder poultry farmers
This group want to know how to gain access to productive chickens and quality inputs. As they often do not trust the information they receive from other sources, for instance feed suppliers they are listening to ACGG because they believe they will receive quality information from the project in general on how to improve their livelihoods. The value they share in common with ACGG is their belief in fairness/ improving livelihoods.While they understand some technical language on chicken breeds, disease types, vaccines, they are not familiar with business or scientific terminology, e.g. nutritional values of specific feeds, cost-benefit analyses, data recording etc. The sources of information they most prefer come in the form of demonstration exercises, training workshops and discussion forums, e.g. firsthand observations of trainer demonstrations, personal experiences (testing feeds, vaccines etc.), field says and discussion fora where they learn from other farmers. Their level of engagement is expected to be high, particularly due to the availability of benefits, e.g. free training. The tone of the communication with farmers is expected to informal as their preferred medium of communication will be face-to-face, followed by local radio/ TV. While they are potentially highly engaged, they would react negatively to information which is not clear, unreliable, and where their feedback is not taken into account.
Medium–large-scale poultry farmers
Motivated by profit, they are interested in listening to ACGG because they are experts in the field and can potentially help them improve the efficiency of their businesses and open up opportunities in the sector. While senior managers may not understand all the technical terms in the field, they employ farm/ hatchery managers, who are capable of translating these terms for their customers, smallholder farmers. Their preferred sources of information are primary sources: farmer demonstration, seeing that farmers prefer the chickens. While their level of engagement is medium–high, they would react negatively to excessive bureaucracy, a lack of agreement, inaccurate, poor or negative communication. Open to various tones of communication, formal, informal, their preferred medium would be face-to-face. However, depending on the situation, they would also respond technical breeder guides, posters, testimonies etc.
Message house
- Extension function of the national research system
●Problem(s): Extension workers lack access to latest information on most productive and preferred chicken breeds, most appropriate feeds
●Solution(s): Produce the information in a way that helps them do their jobs
●Action(s):
●Value(s): Share participation
●Message(s): their involvement is crucial and we support them to reach the project goals.
- Market-orientated smallholder poultry farmers
●Problem(s): Accessibility of a continuous supply of improved genotypes and quality inputs feeds, chicks, vaccines, veterinary services) at affordable prices.
●Solution(s): Involve government and the private sector to create the basis for fair competition in the sector, i.e. ensuring an increase in the supply of inputs and fair and efficient quality control mechanisms.
●Action(s): Based on the baseline survey, analyse the real problems and make recommendations on the most appropriate solutions; encourage the government and private sector work together to support cooperatives; encourage government to safeguard good standards; encourage farmers to organize in cooperatives and provide them with basic business training; encourage the establishment of feed production and processing cooperatives.
●Message: Working together in cooperatives, using the right inputs and breeds, will enhance community livelihoods.
- Medium–large-scale private poultry farmers
●Problem(s): Identifying the smallholders’ preferred strains of productive chickens
●Solution(s): Introduce the breed and demonstrate to the farmers (select few for testimony) under smallholder production systems
●Action(s): Engage in the ACGG innovation platforms; participate in the testing of preferred productive strains of chickens; document the most important strains; and explore the possibility of developing long-term engagement in these processes.
●Value(s): profitability, efficiency
●Message:
Opportunities to engage with key audience in 2016
●February: EIAR technologies exhibition
●March: innovation platform meeting
●April: release of chickens
●October: innovation platform meeting
●Training workshops
●EIAR events nationwide (national, centre level)
●Farmer-research linkage field day
●National innovation platform
●FDG
●Disseminating how the breeds are being preferred
●Arrival of chicks in Ethiopia
●Innovation platform
●Regional Innovation platform
●Ongoing summary of the activities in the specific regions – baseline studies