Sustainable innovations in the Malawi poultry sector: energy efficiency, alternative feeds and dual-purpose breeds
Since 2019, the UK FCDO's CASA Programme has partnered with agribusinesses and investors, helping agribusinesses make their business models more inclusive, attract investments, and improve the income and climate resilience of smallholder farmers. CASA demonstrates that investing in climate-resilient agri-food systems with smallholder farmers can be profitable.
CASA’s work in the poultry sector is contributing to both carbon mitigation and climate resilience goals:
Carbon mitigation
- Various CASA partners have adopted sustainable energy usage for their business operations. CASA supported Nyaluwanga Farms Limited to transition to legally produced charcoal (Choma charcoal from licensed producers accountable to sustainable production practices) for more sustainable heating of chick coops. Umodzi Poultry uses solar power and biogas to reduce the farm’s carbon footprint while powering water systems and irrigation. Both Umodzi and its out-grower quail smallholder farmers are promoting the use of emission-reducing chicken pen construction practices, including the use of unburnt bricks.
- Yalokolo received technical assistance to develop a full business model focused on buying chicken manure from invested producer groups. This manure is then sold for organic vegetable farming, helping reduce the need for chemical fertilisers, which can harm soil health if overused.
- Agwenda Investments Limited, with CASA’s support, encourages smallholders to adopt alternative feed ingredients, such as black soldier fly and termites, to reduce feed costs and replace ingredients that have higher resource requirements. CASA is currently promoting this feeding regime with newer partners, including Tac Maz and Aqualinks.
Climate resilience:
- CASA helped Agwenda introduce dual-purpose breeds, such as Kuroiler chickens. This boosted productivity and smallholders incomes whilst also increasing their resilience to changing weather conditions.
- CASA supported Tac Maz to design a contract farming poultry feed business model that uses feed formulated from paw-paw and moringa tree leaves as the main source of protein. This approach builds resilience against the increasing costs of conventional sources such as soya and maize, which are also more resource-intensive.
All of the above activities were integrated into CASA’s broader market systems development goals. They contributed to improving the business models of partner agribusinesses within the poultry sector and the way in which they generate benefits for their smallholder suppliers.
Through these actions, CASA has demonstrated the efficacy and commercial viability of integrating climate objectives into MSD interventions. This highlights the importance of identifying opportunities to contribute to climate resilience, adaptation and, where possible, mitigation, at the intervention design phase.
In 2022, CASA became fully funded by UK International Climate Finance (ICF), resulting in climate action becoming a core programme goal. How CASA adjusted to focus on climate and what lessons it learned are shared in the paper Adapting agriculture programmes to address climate change.