Scalable success in improving smallholder poultry systems demonstrated in Cambodia and Vietnam

The midterm review of the International Livestock Research Institute-led Asian Chicken Genetics Gains project has showcased success in improving smallholder poultry systems in Cambodia and Vietnam. As a result, funding through the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) has been granted to expand the project to Pacific countries.

The project’s success and scalability have resulted in further funding from ACIAR to expand it to several countries in the Pacific, and scoping studies are already underway in Tonga, the Solomon Islands and Samoa.

Currently implemented in Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam, the ACIAR-funded project is increasing access to locally acceptable, adapted and highly productive chickens, and availing new and proven technologies to expand chicken production.

These technologies improve the performance of the locally adapted and farmer’s preferred chicken through selective breeding. The technologies are packaged to encompass breed, appropriate feed, health and biosecurity interventions.

Photo: A live chicken vendor weighs a chicken in Hung Yen province, Vietnam (credit: ILRI/Nguyen Ngoc Huyen)