Doha: Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) has signed a 5-year, $13 million agreement with World Poultry Foundation (WPF) to expand its flagship program the 'African Poultry Multiplication Initiative (APMI)' to The Gambia and Sierra Leone.
The new partnership will increase poultry production by up to 200 percent compared to local indigenous breeds for over 100 thousand small-scale producers, significantly increasing household income and nutrition.
On this occasion, the Director General of QFFD Khalifa Al Kuwari said "this partnership with WPF and supporting unique programs such as APMI is a quantum leap in the food security sector, as poultry production systems will not only resource-poor areas, but will play a massive role in providing livelihood essentials to vulnerable groups and provide households with income and nutritionally food sources."
"This agreement is a continuation of QFFD's efforts in supporting food security and climate efforts, last year Qatar Fund for Development launched Nanmo initiative with Bill & Melinda Gates, investing in climate-adaptive agriculture tools and technologies to build resilient food systems and markets that provide nutrition, income, and economic opportunities to small-scale producers in the African communities," Al Kuwari added.
The statistics indicate that across Africa, over 70 percent of smallholder farmers rear poultry, 80 percent of whom are women. These farmers often need access to high-quality poultry, balanced feed, technical training, access to financial services, and efficient market linkages to realize a profitable poultry operation.
It is noteworthy that, since 2017, WPF has been involved in developing and implementing the African Poultry Multiplication Initiative (APMI). The program has supported the distribution of 97.5 million day-old chicks, registered over 13,000 new Brooder Units, and reached nearly 2.4 million small-scale producers in Nigeria, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. The APMI program works with private sector partners to incentivize developing markets in hard-to-reach rural areas where high-quality inputs are otherwise inaccessible.
