Sigatoka, Fiji

In Fiji, chicken farming in the villages has mostly died out since the introduction of the mongoose, which kills all the babies and sometimes the adult chickens. Fiji imports over 20 million fertile eggs and baby chicks per year, but these imported chicks do poorly in the village conditions and do not breed well.  At the Sustainable & Environmental Livelihoods Farm (SELF), Sigatoka, they have crossed local chickens with imported breeds to create a very productive cross breed of chickens. The new ‘Happy Chickens’ breed can be over twice as big as the local breeds, and the hens lay very well.

SELF began producing and distributing these village-adapted chickens in order to ensure local fishing communities would have an alternative protein and income source in order to have successful no-fish zones and locally-managed marine areas (LMMA’s). This has been a successful strategy for SELF and they have now produced over 30,000 so far and have distributed them throughout Fiji.  SELF continues to strive to find the most successful island-adapted chicken breeds, as well as research in to chicken feed from locally-grown plant species.

Every pound donated will go directly towards the running of the project and in to the continued research in to village-adapted chicken breeds and locally-grown chicken feeds.