Catalyzing an inclusive Ethiopian poultry market


Photo: Agrilinks

EthioChicken is an Ethiopia-based poultry company that provides improved breeds of day-old chicks (DOCs), along with vaccines and training, to sales agents who raise the DOCs until maturity and then sell them to smallholder farmers. The company is one of the agribusinesses supported by Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation that has had a transformational impact on the sector in which it operates.


The partnership supported EthioChicken in scaling operations and producing its own improved chicken feed, which has positively impacted the growth, inclusiveness and resilience of Ethiopia’s poultry market overall. This case study, conducted independently by Triple Line, explores EthioChicken’s growth and productivity as a result of its collaboration with Partnering for Innovation. It also examines the broader impact that the company and partnership have had on the poultry market system in Ethiopia.


Through the use of an analytical framework, pathways connecting company activities to their larger impact at the market system level are identified. Qualitative and quantitative data collected for this report are then mapped against that framework. Network analysis is also applied to obtain “snapshots” of the country’s poultry market system from before and after the partnership in order to show changes and their causes. Finally, the case study builds on qualitative data collected through interviews with key informants and from focus group discussions, as well as from secondary quantitative data provided by EthioChicken.


This article was originally published by Agrilinks.