Strengthening Poultry Supply Chains in Nepal - Role of International Finance Corporation

The Opportunity

The poultry sector in Nepal is estimated at $240 million and employs over 70,000 people. However, the industry loses up to $32 million in profits. This loss is primarily due to the fact that local SMEs lack formal training on farm management and struggle to stay profitable. More specifically, Nepalese poultry producers face multiple challenges like inefficient feeding practices and low quality of baby chickens – the two key inputs that make up to 90% of their costs. Another issue is bio-security and disease management, which are critical to the sustainability of the industry. Local specialists lack adequate training and the Nepalese poultry sector needs to build capacity in these areas.

Approach

To achieve the most impact, IFC is focusing on the following interventions: *Assess poultry feed process quality and advise on how to improve nutrition practices. *Develop a Standard Operating Practice – a good practice guide for the poultry sector aimed at increasing overall production efficiency. *Analyze bio-security and diseases in parent and grower farms, and provide industry-wide recommendations for improvement. *Train small and medium poultry farms’ staff and build local veterinarian capacity by training the trainers.

Results & Impact

*Provided fee-based training on farm management to 3,000 chicken growers, 22 percent of whom are women. *Trained 26 veterinarians as trainers to build local capacity. *Developed Standard Operating Practice - a guide for stock farms, hatchery, and broiler growers. *Developed Training Aid and Broiler Production Guide to facilitate adoption of new skills and knowledge by poultry farmers. *Introduced Chicken Ammonia Virus P4 vaccine in Nepal, which is expected to sufficiently decrease poultry production costs. *Probio Tech feed mill, one of IFC clients, won “Nepal Standard” quality award by Nepal Bureau of Standards. [http://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/topic… ]