FAO distributes egg incubators to improve rural families’ livelihoods in the Syrian Arab Republic with support from DFID

An implementation of an integrated and innovative intervention has sustained a source of food and income for the most vulnerable resident in villages along the river in Deir Ez-Zor Governorate in the Syrian Arab Republic. FAO, with support from the Department of International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom, designed an intervention that addresses the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2 on Zero Hunger. In villages located 40 km west of Deir Ez-Zor City, vulnerable families, who witnessed some of the harshest scenes of war in the Syrian Arab Republic, are taking any opportunity they can to earn the money they need for survival. They find themselves facing a lack of livelihood opportunities and a lack of access to inputs, leading to limited sources of food for their consumption.

Creating small-scale livelihood opportunities to help the people survive encouraged FAO, with the support from DFID, to reach more than 700 rural families by providing them with laying hens across the Syrian Arab Republic, of which 150 are residents in Al Tebneh village in Deir Ez-Zor Governorate. The objective of the intervention is to support farmers in establishing small-scale businesses by producing eggs and chicks. The sustainability of this poultry intervention is linked to the percentage of hatched eggs, hence, there was a need for solutions to increase that rate and achieve the desired goal. The partners have provided 43 incubators to the targeted areas. Fifteen of the incubators were solar-powered hatcheries and were distributed to households who lack access to electricity up to 14 hours a day, particularly in rural Aleppo and Deir Ez-Zor. The solar-powered egg incubators are modified versions of the regular incubators, which are being used for the first time in the Syrian Arab Republic, to continuously maintain suitable temperature and humidity for eggs to hatch. This intervention meets FAO’s vision on finding innovative solutions with the use of technology to sustain and improve the vulnerable families’ livelihoods across the Syrian Arab Republic.

Each solar egg incubator has the capacity to sustain 168 eggs and should guarantee that up to 80 percent of the eggs hatch. With the use of these incubators, a poultry producer can lengthen the period in which each chicken can produce eggs that hatch, securing their family’s food requirement and enhancing their livelihoods. “We were not able to afford to buy eggs and chicken to cover our requirement of food. But now, we rely on the hens and eggs we produce as our source of food,” said Waha Al Mehsen a female beneficiary resident in Deir Ez-Zor.

The incubator operations are monitored by nominated technicians from the Syrian Veterinary Association whose role also is to record each farmer’s number of eggs, receipt date and expected delivery date (after 21 days of receipt date). Hasan Hamid, from Al Tebneh village in Deir Ez-Zor Governorate, monitors the egg-hatching process for the farmers as well as his own. He stated that, in practice, each egg incubator hatches almost 160 eggs per incubation batch. “This intervention has encouraged many vulnerable families to establish a small poultry business,” said Hasan.  “Now, a farmer can increase the size of his own flock of chickens and improve the livelihoods and food source for the family,” he added.