Improvement of Youth Income Through Poultry Keeping at Orkesumet Hamlet in Simanjiro District in Manyara Region

Improvement of youth income through poultry keeping at Orkesumet Hamlet in Simanjiro District emerged to be a solution to their income need. Youth in this community face a challenge of unreliable source of income, there are various sources like crop production, dairy and beef cattle farming, carpentry, masonry and food vending, but this homogeneous group can’t afford any of these. These youth are those who have or may not have even completed class seven, who are not married, looking for employment and still depending to their parents or guardians for a daily bread. This group of Youth and the other of low income earners Women can only afford poultry farming due to its low running costs, little seed capital and high demand of chicken in restaurants and in households. Poultry keeping has been picked during community need assessment. During discussion session ranking of needs by the aid of pair wise ranking matrix resulted into four priority needs for implementation. In combating this problem the following interventions were identified; poultry farming, crops production, fish farming, establishment of vegetable garden and establishing food vending business. Hamlet Chairperson, student and the target group representative (leader) visited identified places where food remains could be collected freely to reduce feeding costs. Identified places were Simanjiro Secondary School, Rozana and Bhalingas Restaurants. Clean buckets are placed in collection places and picked every evening. A startup capital was raised by the members whereby everyone started with two hens (10,000/= each), two from the Hamlet chairperson (16,000/=), one from OUT student (8,000/=) and two cocks from Town Executive Officer (20,000/=). Another stakeholder brought a duck (10,000)