In the second episode of our Extraordinary Eggs series, we will dive into a sustainable and innovative solution for egg production and consumption in LMIC; the Egg Hub model. How was this model identified and how does it even work? We will get first-hand insights from the implementors and results of the Egg Hub model in Malawi.
In the second episode of our Extraordinary Eggs series, we will dive into a sustainable and innovative solution for egg production and consumption in LMIC; the Egg Hub model. How was this model identified and how does it even work? We will get first-hand insights from the implementors and results of the Egg Hub model in Malawi.
Part 1 focuses on the topic of egg production and the challenges faced in getting eggs to communities that need them the most, in LMICs. We discuss the traditional egg farming practices in rural Malawi, the hurdles faced by local farmers, and the innovative Egg Hub model as a sustainable solution. Part 1 also touches on cultural beliefs and food taboos that inhibit egg consumption in LMIC, and strategies to promote egg consumption among pregnant women, lactating mothers, and children under five. We conclude with a discussion on the outcomes and impacts of the Egg Hub model in Malawi.
00:00 Introduction and Overview
01:14 Introducing the Experts
03:53 Recap of the Previous Episode
04:36 Challenges in Egg Production in LMIC
07:11 Scouting for Solutions: The Egg Hub Model
14:31 Question of the Day: Cultural Beliefs and Food Taboos in Malawi
18:22 Developing a Comprehensive Social Marketing Campaign
19:45 Success Story: The Story of Grace
21:25 Conclusion
Kesso Gabrielle van Zutphen: [00:00:00] We've recognized that eggs are a nutritional powerhouse. But now we face a practical question. Despite the numerous benefits, what are the real world challenges in getting eggs to the communities that need them the most? Hello and welcome back to another fresh episode of Brain Food by Sight and Life, the show where science meets critical thinking. I'm Kesso Gabrielle van Zutphen, and it is my pleasure to guide you through the second episode of our Extraordinary egg series titled "What Is An Egg Hub?" Now, in our last episode, we immersed ourselves in the nutritional science of eggs, and we discussed their role in combating malnutrition. Today we shift gears to a more hands-on perspective where we delve into the real world challenges faced by the egg production sector in LMIC, and we will unveil an innovative and sustainable business model, the Egg Hub, and we will share insights into its pioneering implementation in Malawi as well as the ripple effects throughout its value chain. [00:01:00] Now in the first part of this episode, we'll dissect the hurdles that are plaguing current egg production systems in LMIC, and we'll present the Egg Hub model as a beacon of sustainability and innovation. So without further ado, let's get started. I'm absolutely delighted to have two distinguished experts joining us on this journey. It gives me great pleasure to welcome Maya Stewart. Maya, you are the driving force behind the Egg Hub in Malawi, where you blend your entrepreneurial skills with a strong sense of purpose to manage its operations. You have over 15 years work experience in the private and NGO sector of Malawi. And your educational background includes an MSc in strategic management from the University of Darby and a Bachelor in International Business Administration from United States International University. And in addition to your operational role, you are also a dedicated member of the Private Sector Mechanism Committee for Food Security where you champion access to markets [00:02:00] for small holder farmers. And according to you, Maya, for countries like Malawi where the eggs per capita is very low, both solutions must be adopted to change the narrative on protein intake. And as the humble egg sustains bodies and empowers livelihoods, it embodies the promise of nourishment and prosperity for communities in Malawi and throughout Africa. It's wonderful to have you here with us, Maya. Welcome.
Maya Stewart: Thank you so much. I'm glad to be here.
Kesso Gabrielle van Zutphen: And next we have our very own Srujith Lingala from Sight and Life, serving as a Director of Business Solutions. And I know that for you, Srujith, the Egg Hub is also much more than a project. It's a passion. Srujith, you hold a Master's degree in Public Administration from Columbia University and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management. And your work impacts over 2 million beneficiaries, mainly pregnant women, lactating mothers, and children under five. And at Sight and Life, you design, you implement, [00:03:00] and you manage a portfolio of market-based models for last mile access to affordable and nutritious foods in LMIC. And according to you, Srujith, egg consumption has a potential to dramatically improve health and nutrition outcomes for vulnerable populations. So more eggs, more smiles. That's what you say. I love it. We're happy to have you on the show, Srujith. Welcome.
Srujith Lingala: Thank you Kesso. Huge fan of this podcast series and really really excited to be here.
Kesso Gabrielle van Zutphen: And of course, this show would not be the same without my dear co-interviewers, I have the pleasure of being accompanied by Jordie Fischer and Mathilda Freymond from the Sight and Life team. Welcome Jordie and Mathilda.
Jordie Fischer: Hi Kesso. I look forward to participating in another episode in our series of Extraordinary Eggs.
Mathilda Freymond: Hi everyone. It's great to be part of today's discussion. I'm really looking forward to learning more about the Egg Hub in Malawi.
Kesso Gabrielle van Zutphen: Fantastic. So let's quickly recap what we've learned from our first episode on eggs. So firstly, we've recognized that [00:04:00] eggs are a nutritional powerhouse. They're packed with high quality protein, lipids and essential micronutrients, making them crucial in addressing malnutrition. Second, we debunked myths about egg cholesterol, noting that dietary guidelines have evolved due to a lack of conclusive evidence that egg consumption increases cardiovascular risk. And third, we highlighted eggs' significant role in fighting against malnutrition in LMIC. But now we face a practical question. Despite the numerous benefits, what are the real world challenges in getting eggs to the communities that need them the most? And so we're kicking off this episode with our first round of questions centered around egg production in LMIC. And who better to start us off than Maya? Maya, based on your considerable experience, could you paint us a picture of what traditional egg farming looks like in rural Malawi? And could you share with us some of the hurdles that local farmers and their families are facing?
Maya Stewart: Thank you so much [00:05:00] for your question. From my experience, and this is not just Malawi, we say it's something that also takes place in most of Sub-Saharan Africa. Our biggest challenges are that majority of our farmers focus on backyard farming. This is where a typical household has approximately 10 birds on the ground. There might be less, and they depend on these chickens to supply them all their nutritious needs throughout the year. Unfortunately, these chickens are not the most healthiest in the sense that they're not given the right feed, they're not given the right medication, and as a result, the productivity is not as what it should be typically. As a result, what happens is you are not getting as many eggs as you require for the household. And moreover, you can't also make an income out of it because everything that is produced is most likely going to be consumed at household level. So in my experience, backyard farming is ideal for households for subsistence farming, but not necessarily a sustainable business for commercial purposes. Egg production has to be [00:06:00] monitored. The bird's health has to be monitored in order for you to make a substantial amount of income at household level. Now, if you are dependent solely on backyard farming, the chances of you growing out of that particular farming expertise into a semi-commercial or commercial farmer, is very, very low. In fact, I would potentially suggest that it might never happen in some of the household's lifetime. So as a result, I typically request and suggest to many farmers who want to enter into the poultry sector to think beyond what is a typical backyard farming business enterprise, and look beyond, and most importantly look through the lens of what farming should actually be. A commercial farmer is only sustainable if they have more than 700 birds. And this is enough to feed their household, but on top of that, make them sustainable. Earning a decent income for the family that can sustain them throughout the entire year, and also be in a position to supply them the next flock of birds that will [00:07:00] support them for their next incoming year.
Thank you.
Kesso Gabrielle van Zutphen: This is great, Maya. I think it really helps us see and understand the kinds of solutions that are needed to tackle these issues that you've just mentioned. so Srujith, I've got a big question for you. Based on what Maya just shared, what are the key factors you consider when you're scouting for solutions? How do you balance the needs, you know, of sustainability, economic viability that Maya just referred to, but even nutrition. How do you look for that sustainable business model? What stands out to you?
Srujith Lingala: I'll build up on what Maya has mentioned and I'll take us through the example of how Sight and life has zeroed in and identified an Egg Hub business model that we are going to talk about in a short bit. But first I want to talk about the journey and what are the constraints that we've identified, but also how we came and identified that potentially successful business model. So it was in 2016 that we investigated the [00:08:00] constraints in egg production and conducted a value chain assessment in about four countries: Kenya, Ethiopia, Malawi, and India. And we've conducted about 160 key informant interviews. And these were done with farmers, input suppliers, women's self-help groups, and poultry social enterprises. And throughout the interviews, we were able to profile five business models that really improved poultry production. One was a micro franchising model. The micro financing model, the cooperative farming, then came the enterprise development and the outgrower model. So all of these five models are advanced by various diverse actors. Be it your private companies, the non-governmental organizations and the microfinance institutions. And we conducted an analysis of all of the business models based on four main criteria. One was the impact of this model on egg production and egg availability. Second is the relevance of this [00:09:00] model to a low- and middle-income country, and also to communities that are mostly rural and peri urban. The third is the sustainability of such a model, which means, is this model able to work and operate on itself without constant requirement for donor funding and philanthropies. And fourth is the scalability. Is this model something that can be actually scaled to various different countries? And all of these models that we're talking about did improve egg productivity from an average of about 40 eggs in the backyard setting to a minimum of a hundred eggs in a micro franchising model, and a maximum of about 290 eggs in the outgrower and enterprise development model. So what you see is quite a range but, from the backyard setting of 40 eggs, you are reaching about 290 eggs, which is almost touching the commercial scale economies in the outgrower and enterprise model. And also when you look at the farmer's income, the farmers in the enterprise and the outgrower models have high annual incomes, up to 15 times higher than [00:10:00] in the backyard model. Which is a huge win for somebody who is looking to improve their income but also move into the more commercial forms of poultry farming. And overall, these country case studies really validated our hypothesis that the productivity and the viability of eggs in the outgrower and enterprise model are much, much higher compared to the backyard production setting. And within the both of these models, the outgrower and the enterprise development, the outgrower model is a model that specifically caters to your urban settings, which is, you know, providing eggs to the supermarkets, to the urban regions of the country or the geographies. So what we wanted to do really is be able to provide those eggs to the rural communities and the peri-urban communities, and support backyard poultry farmers to be able to scale to those commercial economies. And following this analysis, the concept of the Egg Hub model was introduced by Sight and Life, and we've done this with [00:11:00] the support and the collaboration of Maya. And we've implemented this in Malawi and qualified as a social business model, which was designed to address the bottlenecks that prevent adequate egg production and availability in low resource, rural and peri urban settings.
Kesso Gabrielle van Zutphen: Wow.
Thank you Srujith. You're giving us all the results at the beginning. We want them for the end! No, no worries. So you've, you've mentioned the Outgrower model, the enterprise development model, but what about the Egg Hub then? So this is where you were getting at. So what is the Egg Hub model?
Srujith Lingala: The Egg Hub model in itself is a variation of the enterprise development model that caters specifically to peri-urban and rural communities. So Kesso, when I talk about the Egg Hub model, what really comes to my mind is a feed Miller at the center of the Egg Hub and the Egg Hub model as a hub and spoke. Think of it as a hub and spoke, where at the hub at the center is a feed miller and [00:12:00] each spoke is a small holder farmer. And the Egg Hub model in itself supports the farmers to transition from backyard poultry, which is a dominant model of poultry farming in LMICs to small scale farming of at least about a thousand birds. Maya mentioned 700 birds as the minimum. We are looking at around 700 to about a thousand birds per farm. And at this scale, the reason is at this scale, farming really becomes profitable and sustainable. And between 2018 and 2021 it was with the financial support from Stichting Dioraphte and in collaboration with maya and Lenzie Mill, our local implementing partner, that Sight and Life piloted the very first Egg Hub in rural and remote parts of Lilongwe in Malawi. And like I said the Egg Hub is a centralized unit and it provides high quality affordable inputs, medical services, veterinarian services, training, and marketer access to these small holder farmers. [00:13:00] And the Egg Hub model, what it really does, it's all going into the last mile. Organizing the small holder farmers into groups of four and five, and providing the input package: birds, and also feed at their doorstep so that the farmer doesn't have to spend a lot of energy and time going into the market, finding out where the feed is, where the right quality birds is. All of them are being provided to them at their own doorstep. And in addition, they're also provided training. They're provided market support to sell the eggs and the trucks are very interesting here, very interesting nuance. The trucks that deliver the feed bring back any excess eggs to be sold in the urban markets.
So, if a farmer is not able to sell eggs in his community, which is very rare that it happens that way, but if it does, he has the assurance that his eggs will definitely be sold, which is a huge relief for the farmer. And over the last three years, I just wanted to explain where we have reached.
[00:14:00] While we've supported about 16 farms and 16,000 birds. And our eggs have reached all kinds of locations and populations including convent nuns, all women's groups, schools, urban poor, living in the slums. And currently the Egg Hub in Malawi is supporting about 80 small holder farmers.
Kesso Gabrielle van Zutphen: This is super. We'll get into details, in a bit. So continuing with our tradition, actually, we gather some questions from our social media audience, and Mathilda has picked a question for us. So Mathilda, over to you.
Mathilda Freymond: Yes, thanks Kesso. So indeed, our followers asked interesting questions and one was related to our previous episode, and the follower says: "In your last episode, you briefly discussed that egg consumption among reproductive age women and children is low in LMIC for reasons such as availability, affordability, but also cultural beliefs. So in the case of Malawi, what are some cultural beliefs and food [00:15:00] taboos that may inhibit egg consumption? And where do they come from?" Maya, would you like to respond to this question from our audience?
Maya Stewart: Sure, I'll gladly take that question on. The question of cultural beliefs and taboos is something that has been there for generations. I think it's probably been there for hundreds of years. But in the case of Malawi, the reasons why a lot of households don't consume eggs, or should I say women lactating women and children under five don't consume eggs, is because the primary household head is the person who actually receives or is the person who's supposed to consume these eggs.
An egg is considered something almost exotic at household level. And as a result, you find that it's mostly men who are the first consumers of the eggs in the household. Thereafter can come the household wife, and then after that, and lastly is the children. We don't know why these beliefs are there, but again, this all comes down to who's the income earner in the household. And he mostly, he is the person who's supposed to [00:16:00] consume the most exotic foods at that level. When it comes to taboo, specifically for Malawi, we have scenarios where pregnant women will not consume eggs because of fear that their children will be born without hair. We also have scenarios where the mother is worried that while she's lactating and breastfeeding her child that, you know, she might pass on some sort of diseases or something that might come from the chicken on towards the child through the process of breastfeeding, so that is another reason for avoiding. But to me, the funniest one I've heard is, if you're breastfeeding or in the process of delivery and you've been eating eggs over the last few months, your child will be born without hair. And this is a major question and a major challenge in Africa where children who are born without hair are considered to be sickly. And that's something that we try to, you know, right now, as part of the Egg Hub, try to educate households that that is not the case. And not just as an Egg Hub, but also through our Ministry of Health who come and educate the households, mothers [00:17:00] and children as well.
Kesso Gabrielle van Zutphen: That's really eye-opening, Maya. And it kind of echoes what we unpacked in the first episode actually, about busting some science myths. So clearly those are not the only myths that we have to tackle. And so Srujith, after hearing about these challenges from Maya, I'm curious, how did you weave this understanding into your strategy to get more people excited about eggs, but also to ultimately get them to consume more eggs? What was your strategy?
Srujith Lingala: So, despite increased supply of eggs, we have implemented the supply, the production aspect. Eggs were being produced, more eggs per week were being produced. There was about 3.5 times increase in the availability of eggs. However, like Maya said, we've actually seen it in numbers and on the ground.
Egg consumption did not really increase in the desired way. It was usually the men of the households or visitors who continue to get the lion's share of eggs because eggs were considered precious and were [00:18:00] prioritized for certain groups of population. And for us it was very clear from the very beginning, Kesso, that for a well-functioning Egg Hub model that is truly effective, it's not only essential to increase egg production, but also ensure that these eggs were consumed by the target populations, which is your pregnant women, lactating women and children under five years of age. So in order to fulfill this objective, we have developed a comprehensive social marketing campaign, and the campaign was based on insights derived from the formative research, which encompassed existing knowledge, attitudes, the behaviors, the cultural nuances, as well as the religious and social influences around egg consumption. And what Maya was saying is what we also heard during the formative research, and based on the formative research, we wanted to really address the issues that were coming up and address the patterns and barriers to consumption of eggs. And we've [00:19:00] conducted the research through selected sampling of our target beneficiaries. And the formative research really showed us that Malawian mothers were really willing to do more and find newer ways to keep their family healthy and happy. That was the overarching sentiment, and it is with this information that we developed the campaign Big Idea. We wanted our mothers, the pregnant women, and the lactating women to grab every opportunity to make their family healthy and happy. And by crafting this particular campaign, Big Idea, we were able to develop multiple distinct routes of communicating the same idea and developing the brand as well.
Kesso Gabrielle van Zutphen: That's great, Srujith. Thank you so much.
Srujith Lingala: And I just want to end with one short story. The story of Grace.
Grace is one of our small holder farmers and she's 45 years old. And she's a passionate farmer. She came to us as a backyard farmer with about 20 local chickens and didn't really have the money to go into commercial farming. But through the Egg Hub model, she [00:20:00] received 1,200 birds in credit and through continual and sustained support she was able to achieve these commercial scale economy efficiencies and able to sell her eggs in the community. And very interestingly, the story doesn't end here. She became very confident about poultry farming and was very excited about expanding her farm and applied and actually, in fact, received a grant from the government on her own.
And now she's on the path to expanding her farm from 1,200 birds to 15,000 birds. And that really takes me to the very initial belief that I have and continue to have: it is that the Egg hub model is all about creating prosperous and confident farmers, and it's these confident farmers who are able to drive out hunger and malnutrition from their communities. Thank you.
Kesso Gabrielle van Zutphen: Thank you, Srujith, and I see Maya, you're nodding vigorously. Would you like to add anything there?
Maya Stewart: No, I think Srujith has kicked it all the way right through the scoring board, but [00:21:00] I definitely agree with every single sentence he meant. And I'm hopeful that, with such solutions that we've created here in Malawi, the one thing that I want to emphasize is that it can be replicated.
It has been replicated beyond our borders and the chances of other farmers benefiting in sub-Saharan africa, but also Latin America. And Asia one day is possible. It can happen. Thank you.
Kesso Gabrielle van Zutphen: Fantastic. So it sounds like there's a lot to look forward to with these developments. So let's recap what we've covered so far. In the first segment of the episode, we explored the various challenges that are reflecting egg production in LMIC, including issues around productivity, securing quality inputs and so on. And we looked at the innovative Egg Hub model. Now, for part two, our speakers will tell us about the initial outcomes of the Egg Hub in Malawi. Srujith already told us a little bit about that, but we'll expand on this a bit more and we'll discuss the impacts on that, on both the [00:22:00] agricultural community and the end consumers.