Abstract Global chicken production has undergone rapid industrialisation over the past century, driven by technological advances in breeding and feed efficiency, and is now among the most consolidated livestock sectors. In Bangladesh, over the past three decades, chicken production has shifted from small-scale subsistence practices to commercialised systems increasingly reliant on imported genetics. Yet, alongside this industrialisation, a significant semi-autonomous value chain centred on Sonali chickens, a locally embedded crossbred bird, has co-existed and thrived. Drawing on the Systems of Provision framework, this paper examines how global and domestic market forces shape the organisation of Bangladeshi chicken production, with a particular focus on genetic control as a critical input. We show how Sonali production represents an alternative provisioning model sustained by smallholders, local markets, and publicly maintained genetics, yet its future is increasingly contested as multinational firms and domestic corporations seek to capture this market. We argue encroachment of Sonali chicken would not only erode an important ‘endogenous material culture’ but further concentrate production with consequences for market control. By highlighting genetics as an influential driver of provisioning, we contribute to broader debates on food sovereignty, regulatory governance, and livestock industrialisation. The fate of Bangladesh’s ‘golden chicken’ underscores how control over foundational technologies shapes pathways of development and autonomy within rapidly transforming food systems.
Hennessey et al. (Wed,) studied this question.