Without the ritual, the poultry s offspring could not serve this vital social function. The mediums spiritual performances thus guarantee the survival of the new genetic material, which enhances poultry production. Besides reviving and improving local breeds of poultry and revitalizing effective traditional practices, the project has resulted in the revival of indigenous knowledge for the herbal treatment of poultry disease. Incorporation into practices emanating from the cosmovision of the local people, including rituals performed by the spirit medium and ritual sacrifices, thus ensured the acceptance and survival of the new hybrids and other innovations, which in turn resulted in the larger yields that will improve the situation of the local community. The main stakeholders in the practice are farmers, fieldworkers, government organizations, non-government organizations, students, universities, and the men, women and youth who live in the communities concerned.
Local beneficiaries are at the same time collaborators, facilitators and implementors.
Altogether, the stakeholders and beneficiaries presently number some 300 to 400 people. It is an empowering process that is stimulated by the communities and developed in situ in such a way that at the end of the process the communities can continue on their own. The process builds on their own knowledge and experience. It puts them in the driver s seat, and thus represents community-led, endogenous development. Besides enhancing endogenous development, the process educates and informs the outside agents who wish to introduce change.