Abstract:
This study was set to estimate the technical efficiency of family poultry production in Ondo State, Nigeria. Multistage sampling procedure was adopted in the selection of 120 respondents. Primary data were collected through structured questionnaire which were administered on the selected respondents. The data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics, Gross Margin analysis and technical efficiency analysis. The findings revealed that about 28.3% of the family poultry farmers were between the ages of 41 and 50 years with a mean age of 46 years. Family poultry production in the study area was female dominated with only 42.5% of the farmers being male. About 9.2% of the farmers were single, while 84.2% were married. Furthermore, 45% of the farmers completed at least tertiary education. Many of the farmers (49.2%) had farming experience between one and five years. Many of the farmers (51.7%) kept poultry birds mainly for commercial purpose, while broilers were mainly raised by the farmers in the study area for meat consumption. The results of the Gross Margin analysis showed that family poultry production was a viable and profitable enterprise in the study area and it was also found to generate a Return on Investment (ROI) of 97 kobo on every one naira invested by the farmers involved in layers production. The technical efficiency analysis revealed that feeds, vaccines and stock size had positive relationship with farmers output while energy consumed and labour had negative relationship to farmers’ output in the study area. Feeds, stock size, energy and labour were all significant in determine farmers’ output. The technical efficiency level of the farmers in the study area was 70% level in production outputs realised by the farmers in the study area, thereby creating a shortfall of 30% inefficiency level by the farmers in the study area. The technical inefficiency effects were also estimated with years of farming experience being significant and with a gamma value of 0.99 indicating 99% of variation in farmers output was attributed to technical inefficiency effects alone while only 1% was due to random error. The major constraints militating against family poultry production in the study area were inadequate capital, high cost of feeds and fluctuating quality of commercial feeds. It was suggested that availability of cheap quality feeds and provision of loans will improve family poultry production in the study area.
