In collaboration with the Tanzanian Veterinary Association and the Open University of Tanzania, VWB/VSF is supporting a project to reduce poverty and increase food production by helping smallholder farmers raise genetically superior chickens. Small-scale, village-based improvements in poultry production, along with training workshops in nutrition, husbandry and disease control, are building local capacity and improving the health and wellbeing of Tanzanian families.

The villages of Ilima and Lubanda lie in the southwest region of Tanzania. Most of families living in these villages depend on their own subsistence farms for both income and food. The uneven land and poor soil quality makes crop growing difficult and unreliable. Often crop yields are so small that supplies run out after just six months. To supplement food and income shortages, many families also raise chickens, yet the local breed of chicken is small and weak, and generally produces only 40 eggs per year - not nearly enough to feed a family of five.

The VWB/VSF project is focused on improving the nutrition and the income potential for Ilima and Lubanda villagers by cross-breeding local chickens with Rhode Island red cocks. The genetically superior offspring are much larger, and produce over four times the number of eggs per year. Local technicians are working with villagers on a regular basis to continue to develop and improve husbandry methods.