PRAEEPOUL: Agroecological local chicken farming in Cameroon
FORI - Project results - Cameroon
Farmers leading the research on agroecological local chicken farming
Through the PRAEEPOUL action-research project, farmer organisations in Cameroon's Centre and Adamaoua regions tested locally sourced feed rations and ethnoveterinary plant treatments on their own farms, and turned what they learned into a national training curriculum for agroecological poultry farming.
📍 Centre & Adamaoua, Cameroon
🤝 CNOPCAM - Afdi
📅 2022-2026
Why this project
Local chicken is a cornerstone of family farming in Cameroon: a source of protein, income and cultural heritage. Yet traditional poultry keepers face mounting pressure from standardised industrial production, disease, and the rising cost of commercial feed.
The Projet de Recherche-Action de l'Élevage Agroécologique de Poulet Local (PRAEEPOUL) set out to make local chicken farming more productive, profitable and resilient, not by importing outside solutions, but through action research led by the farmers themselves. The project is carried by CNOPCAM, Cameroon's national platform of farmer organisations, with technical support from the French agri-agency Afdi, scientific guidance from the national agricultural research institute IRAD, and training expertise from CHASAADD-M.
Two member organisations hosted the experiments on their members' farms: GIC AGREN in Mfou (Centre region) and GIC Friendship in Ngaoundéré (Adamaoua region).
What the farmers did
A participatory diagnosis identified feed and animal health as the farmers' two priority problems. From there, the project followed a farmer-led research cycle:
1. Baseline study (2024). A survey of all participating farms documented existing practices: flock sizes, breeds, housing, equipment, feeding and the traditional medicinal plants already in use.
2. On-farm experimentation. Farmers tested improved feed rations formulated from ingredients grown on their own farms (maize, cassava, soy, groundnut, maize bran, sweet potato, banana and farmed maggots), alongside trials of ethnoveterinary plant treatments, compared against control groups and conventional vaccination, with data collection protocols designed with IRAD.
3. Knowledge consolidation. Findings and farmer know-how were systematised into training materials so the results can spread far beyond the pilot farms.
Key Results
- Local feed knowledge, made usable
The baseline study mapped what farmers actually feed their birds and showed that only 25% of farms in Adamaoua and 30% in the Centre could feed their flocks entirely from farm-grown produce. In response, the project formulated age-specific feed rations (chicks, growers, finishers, layers) built on locally available ingredients, reducing dependence on costly industrial feed.
- Traditional plant medicine put to the test
Farmers ranked the medicinal plants they use against poultry disease: Vernonia, Tithonia, Moringa, Chromolaena, garlic and chili in Adamaoua; Ekouk, Mfol and papaya leaf in the Centre. The most-used plants were selected for controlled on-farm trials against Newcastle disease, Gumboro and parasites, compared with untreated control groups and vaccinated groups, following an IRAD-designed protocol.
- A national training curriculum for agroecological poultry farming
The project's flagship output: a complete competency-based training reference manual (référentiel) for agroecological local chicken farming: 12 modules, 450 hours over 6 months, covering everything from agroecological principles and housing design to feed, animal health, processing, marketing and participatory research. It is designed to plug into Cameroon's professional qualification system and is published by CNOPCAM as a public good.
- Farmer organisations steering research
Beyond the technical results, PRAEEPOUL demonstrated a way of working: farmer organisations defining research priorities, hosting experiments and validating results, with researchers in a supporting role. An innovation and advocacy platform brings these lessons to other actors in the local poultry value chain.
- "This referentiel is a common good, meant to evolve and be enriched through the experience of its use, to build collectively a Cameroonian poultry sector that is resilient, prosperous and rooted in its terroir."
~Elisabeth Atangana, President of CNOPCAM
What it means going forward
With the FORI programme closing in December 2026, the project's results live on through the training curriculum, the documented feed and health protocols, and the strengthened capacity of CNOPCAM and its member organisations to lead research. A particular focus on women and young people, who carry much of Cameroon's village poultry farming, anchors the results where they matter most.
AgriCord - European Union - OACPS - Afdi - CNOPCAM
This project is part of the FORI programme (Farmer-led Research and Innovation), implemented by the AgriCord Alliance with the financial support of the European Union and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS).