Small Coop, Big Dreams: From Sheep Farming Struggles to Poultry Success in Addis Ababa

The caging system kept the chickens safe, clean, and productive. Egg output grew as the hens settled into their new high-rise home. Neighbors, initially skeptical, began to notice how many eggs Elias’s hens were laying and how little space was needed. Before long, people from the neighborhood started coming by to see the curious sight of an urban egg farm in action. Elias even began building additional cage setups for others, selling custom-made poultry cages to local farmers. 

His small backyard experiment was becoming a recognized innovation. It caught the eye of local authorities as well, the district agriculture office in Gulele took note of Elias’s success and saw potential in expanding this idea to help more youth and families in the area.

Impressed by his ingenuity, local officials introduced Elias to a program run by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church’s development wing, the EOC-DICAC (Development and Inter-Church Aid Commission), with support from Oxfam. This partnership focuses on empowering aspiring entrepreneurs in urban agriculture. For Elias, it was a perfect match. Through DICAC, he received additional training that took his poultry knowledge to the next level – learning about vaccine schedules to prevent diseases in chickens, improved feed and growth systems, and business skills for managing and marketing his eggs. “The training opened my eyes to more efficient ways of raising chickens,” he says. “I learned how to vaccinate my chickens and keep them much healthier, which means better production

It didn’t take long for Elias’s hard work to pay off. Within the first year of raising chickens, Elias and his friends began selling trays of fresh eggs to neighbors and local shops.

Starting from 2022, Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church Development and Inter-Church Aid Commission (EOC-DICAC) in partnership with Oxfam, has supported communities in Addis Ababa by promoting urban agriculture. The joint initiative, titled Improving the Livelihood of Rural Migrants and Informal Producers in Addis Ababa through Urban Agriculture, provided comprehensive support, including specialized training, essential farming inputs, and innovative agricultural techniques such as drip irrigation and vertical farming. Through capacity-building, mentorship, and targeted interventions in poultry, vegetable production, and beekeeping, the project has significantly enhanced local incomes, nutrition, and food security, reaching over 2,791 beneficiaries, the majority being women and youth.