Quails make an easy food source, they are easy to feed and grow quite fast. They are also a source of eggs and meat. Dutch Pastor Jan Peter Kruiger is convinced that this small bird can contribute to reducing famine in Africa.

Kruiger is not an ordinary clergyman. This is evident when visiting his presbytery in Oud-Zuilen, in the heart of Holland. His front yard is full of birdfeed bags.

Beyond the bags, another surprise awaits the unsuspecting visitor: quail eggs packed into his greenhouse, waiting to hatch.

The Pastor of the Opstandinskerk in Utrecht has been passionately breeding the small bird for years. An adult quail is comparable, in size, to a large chick and weighs around 500 grams. Kruiger makes a tidy profit selling the eggs and meat.

“In my church, I teach people to live in harmony and spend reasonably”, says the pastor. “Practice what you preach! That’s why the income from my farming activities go to ‘Kwartels voor Afrika’ (Quails for Africa)”, he adds.

Source of protein
Back in his yard, Kruiger explains his project. The quails are kept in three large enclosures –old rabbit cages. “In Africa, proteins are often missing from the people's diets. Each henhouse can hold up to eight quails and that’s enough to meet the protein requirements of an average African family with children”, explains Kruiger.

The pastor turned entrepreneur hopes each African family will, one day, own a henhouse, starting with families in Uganda and Kenya.

Better than chicken
According to Jan Peter Kruiger, the quail has more to offer than the chicken. “Quails need less space and lay healthier eggs, rich in minerals”, he says. Quails mature faster than chicken. Chicken grow in six months, whereas quails, in summertime, reach full maturity in just eight weeks.

Meanwhile, the project “Quails for Africa” is slowly taking off. The administrative details have been sorted out, for the most part, and “test projects” are underway. The Dutch pastor has already travelled to Kenya this year with a few fertilised eggs. “Unfortunately, they did not survive the eight-hour trip on bumpy roads”. He is already planning another attempt.

The importance of the project, according to Kruiger, lies in the fact that Africans do not have animal farming skills. Quails are certainly found across the continent, but mostly in the wild. “I have, in front of me, a grandmother looking after her grandchildren – something quite common around here. She could sell the excess meat and eggs to make some money”.

Not easy
As sympathetic as the project might appear, Kruiger admits there are obstacles. The eggs of Japanese quails, for instance, do not hatch in captivity. An artificial brooder requires large amounts of electricity and a solar-powered one costs at least 1000 Euros.

Furthermore, the production of meat is usually costly in terms of raw materials. Kruiger has taken that fact into account in his project: “We don’t intend to take food from people and give it to the quails. Since the quail is omnivorous and would eat almost anything, we try to be as creative as possible”.

“Consider, for example, building a henhouse on a hill full of termites. Quails eat termites and humans don’t. Or take the worms from decomposing carcasses, inedible for a human being but perfectly healthy for the quail”.

Meanwhile, in Kruiger’s wildest dreams, he sees poverty stricken areas in Africa having a henhouse next to each hut or home.

www.quailsforafrica.com