Pakistan aims for a 'chicken on every plot' an idea Imran Khan borrowed from Microsoft founder Bill Gates, has been met with widespread derision.
Headlines and pun-filled tweets have mocked the premier as throwing 'chicken feed' at serious problems. One editorial cartoon showed a heavy wooden cart, labelled 'the economy,' being pulled uphill by a struggling hen.
But at the Poultry Research Institute, which has spent years trying to develop the perfect backyard chicken, director Abdul Rehman firmly believes that the project can make a critical difference in the health and livelihood of millions of poor Pakistanis, reported Washington Post.
“In Pakistan, 44 per cent of children under age 5 have stunted growth due to nutritional deficiency,” Rehman said. “Our high infant mortality rate is associated with malnutrition in mothers. These eggs can add a healthy ingredient to their diets.”
The newborn death rate in Pakistan, about 40 per 1,000 births, is among the highest in the world, according to the World Bank. The second goal is to provide extra household income for poor families who can sell the eggs.
Livestock officials estimate that five hens, laying several eggs each per week, can bring in at least 10,000 rupees ($75) a month — more than the salary of a security guard or construction worker.
In contrast with the skeptics, many poor and working-class Pakistanis said they were excited to hear about the project and eager to sign up.
Even more-affluent families said they appreciated Imran Khan’s continued focus on the plight of the poor, which he vowed to prioritize during his campaign.
“People may laugh at the prime minister over this, but I laugh at them. It is a wonderful idea,” said Zahida Shad, a middle-class homemaker in Islamabad.
She keeps a half-dozen chickens near the family’s garage, mostly to provide extra nutrition for her grandchildren. “Here in the city, people have money to spend, but they can’t find a single pure thing to eat,” she said.
Sardar Ali Abbas, 55, who owns a crockery shop in Rawalpindi and keeps a few chickens on his roof, applied for the new program right away and is impatiently waiting for it to begin. He observed that factory-bred chickens are raised to lay more eggs and that while their eggs are larger and whiter than desi eggs, they lack their flavor and oomph.
“We want the same good food for our children that our parents and grandparents had for us,” Abbas said. “The problem is, desi eggs cost more and they are hard to find. The others are everywhere.”
Therein lie the greatest obstacles to the success of the chicken-in-every-plot scheme — economies of scale, which keep factory eggs cheap, and, reportedly widespread business practices, such as warehouse hoarding and price manipulation, that benefit large food processors and brokers at the expense of small farmers.
In a recent essay in the News International newspaper, Zaigham Khan, a Pakistani development professional, wrote that persistent poverty in rural Pakistan is “more about the fox” than the chicken. With the political and business elite conspiring to maximize profits, he argued, only a radical reordering of the playing field can truly give family farmers a boost.
“The problem is that the whole market, at every stage, works against the poor,” he said in an interview. “It is fine for families to be eating better eggs, but even the small producers who raise 500 birds can’t compete with the crony capitalists who sell 30,000.”
It is far from clear whether Khan’s anti-poverty crusade will take wing or whether selling a few eggs a week will bring in more than pocket change for struggling rural families.