Our projects (Interventions)
Partners for Integrated Growth and Development (pigad) strives to reduce poverty and improve livelihoods through poultry production and egg farming. These interventions are hinged on a Farming as a Family Business (FaaFB) approach which envisages innovative solutions that enhance food and nutrition security, access to sustainable markets and equality of opportunity for the previously marginalized groups such as women and youth for total empowerment.
Our main aim is to enhance the capacities of smallholder farmers to realize perennial incomes from the egg production family businesses.
The commercial egg production business programme (2014 – 2019) is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). To date, it has achieved the following:
- Increased unseasonal income for the rural smallholder farmers (75% women as household focal persons).
- Improved availability of climate-smart produced foods with a high nutritional and protein value in rural areas.
- Youth economic empowerment and increased participation in agribusiness. This gives the youth, young adults and young families a start-up business opportunity and a means of securing the necessities of life. A key agent for change and empowerment is linked to economic freedom which ultimately leads to the realizing of social freedom.
The commercial egg production family business programme is being implemented by pigad in mentoring partnership with Help from Germany, an international development agency headquartered in Bonn, Germany.
Commercial egg production family business programme
pigad is supporting farmers to produce and market eggs using market-led approaches (M4P). In order to promote coordinated marketing of eggs, the farmers are encouraged to organize themselves into farmer marketing groups, Internal Savings & Lending (ISAL) groups, and egg marketing associations. These synergies strengthen their representational capacity by subscribing to the district secondary egg marketing board (Goromonzi Smallholder Poultry Producers Union).
The project takes a pure business approach placing value on business record keeping (monthly production and financial reporting). It promotes farmer to farmer extension through a lead farmer approach which relies on the use of demonstrations, extension services, and monitoring/advisory services. Through our business model, smallholder farmers are able to minimize the production costs through producing their own maize for the chicken feeds using climate-resilient agriculture and through bulk input procurement (Vaccines, Feeds, poultry equipment, Day-Old- Layer chicks and Point of Lays). Through the ISAL Groups, the farmers are capacitated to generate more income and access loans locally, this enables them to replace their birds once they finish the laying phase. More so, the ISAL’s project enables the smallholder farmers to diversify their income, thus cushions them against economic shocks. Farming as a Family Business (FaaFB) approach supports family cohesion and unity which promotes strong emotional bonds and family support in the business. These different strategies and approaches implemented guarantee the sustainability and resilience of egg production family business. Value addition (bulking, cleaning, grading and packaging) is exercised at various stages along the egg production chain from production up to marketing which results in increased gains for the smallholder farmers.
August 2014 – December 2016:
Egg production family business for 1,500 smallholder farmers in Goromonzi District (Mashonaland East)
June 2017 – December 2019
Expansion of the Egg production family business to a total number of 3,000 smallholder farmers in Goromonzi District, Marondera and Mrewa (Mashonaland East)
The programme is implementing the following activities:
- Identification, selection, and verification of smallholder farmer families, the participation of young adults in rural areas is prioritized.
- Provision of subsidized fowl run building material and equipment, point of lay birds (30/farmer), start-up chicken feeds, vaccines and Day Old Layer chicks.
- Capacity building and training in siting and construction of fowl runs according to International and Zimbabwe Standards, chicken management (Feeding, Hygiene, Disease control, Management during the different bird life stages) and Farming as a Family Business (Record-keeping, Record analysis, Marketing, Value addition)
- Climate-smart agriculture (CA – Farming, holistic approach, compost, mulching) training for improved yields.
- Promoting diversifying of income and increasing sales through internal Savings & Lending training and Marketing groups formation.
- Provision of Business advisory support services for the Goromonzi Smallholder Poultry Producers Egg Union.