ISSN 2360-7971
Abstract
Accepted 11th August, 2017.
This research work examined the economics of quail production in Southwest, Nigeria. Multistage sampling technique was used, with the selection of two States (Ondo and Ekiti States), snowball was used in getting the respondents in the communities selected from each of the two States. A total of eighty (80) respondents were used. Data were collected with the aid of well-structured questionnaire. Information was collected on respondents’ socio- economic characteristics, economic potentials of the business, its profitability and constraint to its expansion and development. Descriptive statistics and Gross Margin Analysis were used to analyze the data collected to achieve the objectives of the study. The result obtained from the descriptive analysis revealed that the respondents from the study area were predominantly male and over 90% of the respondents possessed one level of education or the other while the remaining 10% had no formal education. The descriptive statistics also revealed the economic potentials of quail farming especially its usefulness in the area of medicine, as a means of cure and preventive medicine for most human ailments. Gross Margin Analysis revealed the huge returns and profit from the quail farming, a net farm income of ₦87,243.71 was realized annually by a farmer that engaged in quail production in the study area. The mean and standard deviation also showed the constraints affecting the expansion of the quail farming business, among all the constraints listed, it was revealed that lack of awareness about the benefit of quail with mean value of 3.76, inadequate capital (3.57), size of the egg (3.30) and low demand (3.14) were the most prevalent constraints facing the expansion of quail despite its various fascinating attributes. In conclusion, this research revealed that quail production has great economic value and just the economic value alone, it also revealed the medicinal potentials of quail because their eggs are used as cure various human ailment.
Keywords: Quail farming, Gross Margin, Constraints.