Backyard Poultry Farming and Household Food Security in Rural Delta State, Nigeria: Mechanisms, Evidence and Policy Trade-offs

Backyard poultry is frequently proposed as an accessible livelihood and nutrition strategy for rural households, yet poultry ownership does not necessarily produce more secure access to nutritious food. This critical narrative review examines how household chicken production could influence food availability, economic access, dietary utilisation and livelihood stability in Delta State, Nigeria. It differentiates scavenging and semi-intensive backyard flocks from market-oriented poultry enterprises, integrates place-specific evidence with Nigerian and international research, and appraises competing nutritional, economic, gender, animal-health and environmental mechanisms. A targeted appraisal of peer-reviewed studies and institutional evidence published up to 24 August 2026 was organised around causal pathways, study design and contextual transferability. Delta State surveys document small-flock production, extension and finance constraints, while regional food-security studies reveal broader structural determinants; few link independently measured backyard poultry exposure to robust household food-security outcomes. International trials demonstrate that poultry-related interventions can improve egg consumption under certain conditions, but effects on dietary diversity and child growth are heterogeneous and often depend on complementary nutrition support, disease control, household allocation and implementation fidelity. Women's responsibility for flock care does not automatically confer control over sales or income. Newcastle disease, market volatility, contaminated domestic environments and Niger Delta livelihood shocks can weaken or reverse anticipated benefits. The evidence therefore supports a conditional rather than universal contribution of backyard poultry to food security. For Delta State, integrated and locally evaluated packages combining animal health, practical husbandry, safe flock–household separation and gender-responsive nutrition support appear more defensible than flock expansion alone. Priorities include longitudinal household measurement, controlled intervention evaluations and transparent analysis of costs, equity and health trade-offs. These findings provide a framework for evaluating poultry as one component of a broader rural food-security strategy.