ISSN 2360-798X
Abstract
Accepted 17th September, 2018
The study assessed factors limiting poultry production in Benue State, Nigeria. Data were collected with the use of structured questionnaire. Ninety respondents were selected using purposive sampling technique. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean scores and inferential statistics such as factor analysis and logit regression model. Results revealed that 57.8% of the respondents were females, 51.1% of the respondents were between 31 and 40 years, 64.4% of the respondents were married, 45.6% of the respondents had an annual income of less than or equal to N50000, 57.8% of the respondents had a household size of less than or equal to 5persons, 30.0% were secondary school leavers, and 57.8% had 1-10 years of poultry farming experience. The study also showed that majority (64.2%) of the respondents regularly accessed information through friends/neighbors/relations. The findings further revealed that 86.5% of the farmers adopted vaccination/diseases control and good hygiene technologies respectively. More so, 47.8% of the respondents practiced intensive system of poultry management while 88.6% of the respondents culled sick birds. The major factors limiting poultry production in the study area were lack of technical know-how (0.718), poor means of transportation (0.764), lack of timely information (0.858), inadequate capital (0.428), high cost of feed (0.795), diseases and parasite infestation (0.726) which loaded as technical, labour and input-related constraints. There is a significant relationship between socio-economic characteristics of the respondents and poultry production. The socio economic characteristics are age, sex, household size and income.It was therefore recommended that government should make policies specifically for transformation of the small scale poultry industry. This will assist in reducing the factors limiting poultry production and thereby creating a favourable environment to increase poultry production among small holder poultry farmers.
Keywords: Factors, Limiting, Poultry,production, Extension, delivery