Production Systems and Constraints in Market-oriented Smallholder Chicken Production in Southwest States of Nigeria
This study aims to survey current chicken industry and the status of technology based on the KAFACI project on the promotion of good management for increased productivity of market oriented small scale chicken producers in Nigeria. The agricultural sector has been identified as a virile sector with varieties of opportunities for the much sought diversification of revenue base and employment generation in Nigeria despite the dominance of smallholder farmers. The chicken enterprise has being a component of the livestock industry showing increasing importance. Growing entrepreneurships for sustainable growth of the industry requires investigating the prevailing environment in market-oriented chicken production in Southwest Nigeria. This study investigated the production practices, constraints of market oriented smallholder chicken farmers. Data were generated through farm survey of 240 farmers selected by multi-stage sampling techniques from 5 out of 6 states in the Southwest. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The study shows a population of famers dominated by male 76.7% and average year of education of 13.88years. Foundation stock of birds are prominently sourced from commercial hatcheries (75.8%) and reared under intensive management system (87.8%). Majority of the farmers (46.7%) are into rearing of layers, broilers and cockerels with an average stock size of 449, 157 and 158 birds respectively. Birds are fed twice daily (74.8%) on compounded ration by 95.4% of the farmers. Major production constraints are high feed cost (32.1%), shortage of capital (30.0%) and poor access to market (25.4%). However, 96.7% of the farmers considered the enterprise profitable.