The primary objective of the RIU poultry project was to transform the indigenous chicken industry into a more innovative, productive and competitive rural sector through up-scaling to increase the demand for new knowledge, and through building system capacities to seek and utilize knowledge and technology. The programme therefore built technical capacity of smallholder rural farmers to take care of larger poultry flocks, boosting indigenous chicks production in local hatcheries and breeder farms, established a functional value chain and linkages among stakeholders, facilitated investment in market development, and influenced policy and regulation by the government for overall development of the subsector.