Intervention(s)
In this experiment, our main intervention consists of the transfer of high-productivity chickens, combined with training in poultry management and a starter package of high quality feed, to selected food insecure women as part of a transfer program intended to support their livelihoods. These high-productivity chickens belong to the SASSO T-451 breed, which is a dual-purpose bird capable of growing to a much larger size, and laying many more eggs, than typical local fowl. The breed is known as being "ideal for village conditions" partly due to being "robust" and "easy to manage". As well as the breed's genetic advantages, these chickens received a full course of vaccinations and were raised to the age of approximately 7 weeks at a professional poultry farm prior to distribution.
The study sample comprises 2,596 women across 110, predominantly rural, communities in western Sierra Leone. Within each community, we conducted baseline surveys with approximately 25 of the most food insecure women, selected on the basis of a short ”screening survey” given to women who registered their interest in participating in the project. Communities were assigned by a stratified random process to one of three groups: Control, Transfer Program, and Transfer Program + Demand. Within treatment group communities (ie. communities not assigned to Control status), we conducted a further stratified individual-level randomisation of baselined subjects to a treatment or control group. Of the 2,596 study participants, 311 were assigned to receive the asset transfer program, comprising 155 subjects in the Transfer Program arm, and 156 in the Transfer Program + Demand arm.
The training sessions in poultry management were curated by a professional veterinarian with extensive poultry experience. These one-day sessions focused on simple and practical actions that the attendees could take in order to improve the health and performance of the chickens provided through the intervention. Professional-grade poultry feed was distributed to the treatment group for the first three months after receipt of the chickens in regular monthly deliveries, during which the distribution team provided updated guidance on the recommended feeding quantities and schedule for treatment group subjects' birds. This was designed to gradually taper the proportion of all feed that the provided chickens derived from professionally mixed feed, so that the birds could slowly learn to substitute this for scavenging locally if necessary.
Treatment group subjects in the Transfer Program + Demand arm received an additional component of the intervention wherein they were given the opportunity to sell the eggs laid by their provided chickens at regular weekly intervals to the implementation team. These individuals were told, at the moment that their chickens were distributed to them, that when their hens began their laying period, the implementation team would make weekly visits to their community to offer to purchase their eggs, and that they would be able to sell their SASSO eggs to the implementation team at a constant price per egg. They were also told that the implementation team would visit them directly within the community when offering to purchase the eggs, thereby avoiding transaction costs to the individual. When delivering the final instalment of professional-grade feed, it was communicated to these individuals that the price offered per egg would be 4 leones (approximately 0.17USD at the time of writing). This price was set at rough equivalence to the price of chicken eggs in regional markets, minus a small nominal cost of transportation. Once the treatment group's provided hens began their laying period, the project implementation team began to make weekly visits to each individual in the Transfer Program + Demand arm with remaining SASSO hens for this purpose.