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Notice in the video how they're not feeding the chickens by letting them forage. They're always feeding them grain.
by Etarip 10y ago
Notice in the video how they're not feeding the chickens by letting them forage. They're always feeding them grain.
- crpatino 10y agoGrain in bulk is still cheaper than poultry. However, you have a point. If poor urban families do not have access to fairly priced chicken feed, they will face the choice of feeding them pet food (at a net economic loss) or cutting their losses and eating all the chickens right away.
- giarc 10y agoPlease read the article written by Bill. One of the first lines is that chickens are easy to feed because they can make do with stuff they naturally find on the ground. Given grain will help them grow faster, but it's not imperative.
- crpatino 10y agoYes, as I mentioned in my edit to GP, I have now read the article. It still sounds strange to me. I mean, how is it that 3rd country rural people cannot not know about chickens? I assumed this would be about giving flocks to urban poor, where there is precious little area not covered by concrete and the chickens would likely forrage on half poisoned cockroaches or something like that.
- giarc 10y agoYou are assuming a few things here. 1. they are giving to urban poor 2. urban areas are covered in concrete. From the article and the video it seems like chicken farming is already quite prevalent (they state a figure of 5% of the population of Burkina Faso have chickens) and they are hoping to increase that to 30%. I imagine a great charity like the Gates Foundation have done their due diligence and determined that the local charity they are working with knows what they are doing.
- rconti 10y agoUrban areas in Africa are hardly going to be "covered in concrete".
- imjustsaying 10y ago>It still sounds strange to me. I mean, how is it that 3rd country rural people cannot not know about chickens? After a few years of living in places most people would consider third world, I have come to the conclusion that it is not safe to assume that people living in the third world have knowledge of any given topic. I think knowledge is one of the things that is lacking the most, which is why it's so sad to see the commies in Beijing only allowing Mickey Mouse state newspapers and breaking the internet to perpetually keep people on the plantation. Michael Jackson, however, has pretty good name recognition just about everywhere.
- morgante 10y agoI'm fairly certain this program is not targeted at poor urban families.
- fr0sty 10y agoThis is at least in part an editorial choice. Woman throwing grain to flock of chickens running around her feet is a much more interesting visual that chickens walking around foraging...
- cwbrandsma 10y agoBetter visual than watching the women throw out handfuls of bugs and worms (which chickens LOVE). Actually, you can feed chickens nothing but grain, but it isn't good for them -- they need more protein.