CLOSE to 172 rural households in the Karas Region have benefited from a government-initiated poultry project aimed at improving their protein consumption.

This was revealed by chief agriculture extension officer Ben Haraseb at a meeting that Karas Governor Bernadus Swartbooi had called last Saturday with the Bethanie !Aman community.

Haraseb said each household was supplied with 20 day-old chicks and a cock since the project started in 2009.

"The objective is to supply farmers with day-old chicks so that they can supplement their diet by keeping some chickens and also doing small business if the egg production is more than home consumption," said Haraseb.

According to Haraseb, farmers pay for the chicks and the ministry only facilitates their transport to the nearest agriculture development centre.

He said the ministry was also looking at importing older chickens that would start laying eggs after two weeks, but this would be more expensive than bringing in day-old chicks.