Scale, Skill and Sustainable Livelihoods – Participatory Approaches to Improving Poultry Production in Peri-Urban Communities: Evidence from South Africa

Poverty and food insecurity are widespread in developing countries. Sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for approximately one-quarter of the world's poor, has acute food insecurity in its central, eastern and southern regions. Poverty has multiple dimensions and is characterized by the inability of individuals, households or entire communities to access sufficient assets to sustain a socially acceptable standard of living. By improving their asset status, households can become more resilient to external shocks through increased options for livelihoods. This paper examines the scaling-up of traditional family poultry systems as a possible livelihood strategy to reduce poverty and food insecurity in peri-urban communities in South Africa. Participative action research methodologies revealed small-scale broiler enterprises as the preferred poultry system. Through business incubation, trainee entrepreneurs from the community demonstrated abilities to manage scaled-up broiler systems profitably over four succes...