Feeding Village Poultry in Solomon Islands

The project is funded by ACIAR. The project ran from 2005 to 2008.

In Solomon Islands an estimated 22,000 families have free range village poultry and produce about

220,000 birds and 2.64 million eggs per year. This small holder sector using local breeds has been historically ignored by agriculture extension services.   A local NGO, Kastom Gaden Association (KGA) has been promoting poultry production and has a proven track record  in  demonstration and extension activities in the villages.

The South Australian based SARDI Pig and Poultry Institute (PPPI) leads the project, building on the experiences of establishing a feed testing facility for the smallholder broiler sector in PNG. TerraCircles Tony Jansen worked as part of the SARDI team.

The aims of the project are:

1. To develop rations for village-based layer and meat birds based on locally available feedstuffs.
2. To interact with farmers and farmer groups to evaluate, disseminate and communicate the value of rations based on local feedstuffsbased on local feedstuffs
3. To evaluate the nutritional value and palatability of innovative feedstuffs in organic poultry production and communicate information to industry

The project is funded by ACIAR. The project ran from 2005 to 2008.

Key results of the project have been:

• 3 feed rations based on locally available ingredients tested
• A good working partnership between NGOs, Government Extension Services and Solomon Islands College of Higher Education established
• Trained technician now with KGA
• Many farmers trained on two week – one month attachments and then followed up with visits to their home villages
• a baseline survey and learning about the range of village poultry approaches