In this paper we focus on the rural poultry producing households in Ghana. Our aims are twofold. Our first aim is to present in detail the contribution of poultry to the incomes of rural Ghanaian households, disaggregated by agro-ecological zones, income segments and the size of flock. Our second aim is to calculate the impacts (i.e., income losses) that these households would suffer in the case of HPAI outbreaks and threats.
The findings reveal that there are significant differences in the magnitudes of the contribution of poultry income to the overall household income, and consequently in the impact of HPAI outbreaks and threats on household income, across agro-ecological zones, income groups and poultry producers of different sizes. According to our calculations the segment of the population that would be affected the most is the poorest poultry producers in the first income group (first decile). These households would lose as much as 9% of their total household income. Across agro-ecological zones rural poultry producers in Northern Savannah would suffer the most from supply and demand shocks caused by HPAI outbreaks, whereas across producer types, small scale semi commercial producers would lose the highest share of their income. Therefore, heterogeneity across zones, income groups and producers of different sizes should be taken into consideration
pertaining to poultry in general and HPAI control in particular.