Can Climate-Resilient Chickens Help Fight Poverty?
An initiative in Zambia is showing that a profit-seeking company can help rural farmers battling extreme weather breed chickens that lay more eggs.
By Patricia Cohen
These are not just any chickens. They are Zambro chickens, birds specifically bred to thrive in the toughest climates. A dual-purpose chicken — more on that later — that needs less water and feed, grows faster and fatter and lays more eggs. A chicken that is more resistant to disease and costs less to raise than many of the village chickens found in backyard coops.
Dual-purpose breeds spread across Africa in the mid-2010s — Noilers in Nigeria, Tanbros in Tanzania, Kenbros in Kenya. Such a chicken is important in countries like Zambia, which is increasingly battered by extreme weather. Last season, the worst drought in four decades devastated crops and livestock. Food shortages in rural areas were rampant in a country that already had one of the highest rates of malnutrition and stunted children in sub-Saharan Africa.
“How many people ate an egg in the last day?” Mr. Phiri asked the crowd at the Kambvumbe school. In the last week? The last two weeks? Finally one person raised a hand.
The Zambro initiative is sponsored by a partnership between Hybrid, based in Lusaka, and the World Poultry Foundation, a nonprofit in Atlanta that received funding from the Gates Foundation and the Qatar Fund for Development. The enterprises they are supporting are not charities, but private ventures that depend on turning a profit...
Simon Wilde, Hybrid’s managing director, said the program teaches farmers not only how to raise chickens but how to make money. The importance of self-sustaining programs in Zambia and other poor countries is more pressing now that President Trump has taken a hacksaw to America’s foreign aid programs. For years, sub-Saharan Africa was a primary recipient of U.S. aid. Last year, the region received $12.7 billion. Billions more were spent on other worldwide programs related to health and climate resilience that also largely benefited Africa.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/29/business/zambro-chickens-eggs-zambia.html
https://wol.com/how-climate-resilient-chickens-could-help-fight-poverty/