(c) UNODC-COAFG
Afghanistan, October 2018 - This is a success story of a beneficiary of the UNODC Alternative Development (AD) programme. The Dutch Committee for Afghanistan, with the financial support of the UNODC Alternative Development (AD) programme, selected the Zikr Ullah’s wife as a beneficiary of the AD programme and provided her with basic business skills in backyard poultry farming management.
The Zikr Ullah's wife lives in the Shar-e-Now area of the Maidan Wardak province. She had a very difficult time trying to feed their families and generate an income for their basic needs, as her husband was old and jobless. She said “we were unable to pay for our children to go to school, buy them notebooks, pens and any other required stationery. We couldn’t even feed our family with nutritional food. We were always looking for an income-generating source to manage our life.”
In October 2018, the Dutch Committee for Afghanistan, with the financial support of the UNODC Alternative Development (AD) programme, selected the Zikr Ullah’s wife as a beneficiary of the AD programme and provided her with basic business skills in backyard poultry farming management. The project supported her with building a chicken coop, provisioning 20 pullets, 100kg of balanced layers feed, 3 pieces of feeders, 2 pieces of drinkers and a ventilator. Also, the project technical staff continuously monitored the farm and gave her technical support and linked her to the local Veterinary Field Unit (VFU) and milk and eggs collection center.
The Zikr Ullah’s wife said “after two months, the pullets started laying eggs and so I started to collect on average 15 eggs per day from my small backyard poultry farm or 450 eggs per month. Of the collected eggs, I was feeding on average 100 of the eggs to my children and family and selling the rest of the eggs (350 eggs) in the market (each egg for AFN 10), through which I could earn AFN 2,500 per month”.
Fortunately, the recent crisis and change in government has not affected her business. Her business is functional, and she was very happy as she said “poultry farming is a good business for women and those families who are lacking profitable income-generating sources. She added that she has been successfully been supporting her family with the daily home-based expenses during this hard time”.
As observed, she now owns 15 pullets. The family collects 7-8 eggs on average in a day, through which her family can afford their daily basic needs.
Not only can the Zikr Ullah’s wife afford her family's daily basic needs, but also most of the other 330 women that were supported under the UNODC AD program could maintain their poultry farm in the Maidan Wardak province.
Overall, the UNODC AD programme has supported 980 households in three districts of the Maidan Wardak province during the years 2018 to 2020.