Duration: 2018-2019
RCID contact person: Jules Kazungu (Email: jules.kazungu@rcidcentre.com)
Sponsor: LTS International, UK, co-financed by DFID
Sponsor’s Contact person, function and email: Clarissa Samson, Senior project Manager and Data Analyst (e-mail. clarissa-samson@ltsi.co.uk)
DFID has funded AgDevCo’s investment gives Uzima the operational funding to grow rapidly as a domestic producer of DOCs for local smallholder farmers and eventually export to the region. AgDevCo’s $3m debt investment is aimed at supporting Uzima’s establishment in Rwanda, whose government strategy seeks poultry self-sufficiency within two to three years. Uzima Chicken Limited is an East African poultry company holding exclusivity on the production, distribution and sale of SASSO breed chickens in the region. The SASSO dual breed is far more productive than local breeds but is also bred to excel in outdoor ‘backyard’ smallholder dwelling environments. Uzima produces and supplies Day Old Chicks (DOCs) through a network of sales agents. These locally placed sales agents, who are 50% women are provided with a full solution package (training, feed, vaccines and medicine) in order to raise and sell on chicks to smallholder farmers. The diffusion of this improved breed in turn creates value at the smallholder farmer level, through better quality meat and eggs for consumption and sale.
RCID Ltd was contracted by UK LTS International &NIRAS Consulting Group to conduct the mid-Term evaluate the benefits from the investment to Uzima sales agents and the smallholders to whom they sell chickens.
Main tasks of RCID Ltd were:
- To track impact progress from Agents and smallholder farmers surveyed in the baseline study;
- To create a baseline of CPDA poverty rates and asset values, against which the impacts of Uzima’s business on their incomes can be calculated;
- To generate learning on the performance of Uzima’s business model, including the newly introduced CPDA approach to enable Uzima and AgDevCo to enhance development benefits from this and future poultry investment.
