SOCIO- ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF HOMESTEAD GOAT- KEEPING IN ONDO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Small ruminants, especially goats are important sources of protein to the ruralites in all states of Nigeria, not only because there is no religious taboo against them, but also because they are hardy and can readily convert food wastes and roughages into flesh. Notwithstanding these important economic advantages, very few economic research works are available on them. Thus, this study examined, the socio-economic characteristics of homestead goat-keepers in Ondo State, Nigeria; estimated the gross margin per goat-keeper; identified, quantified and estimated the parameters of factors affecting the revenue earned from homestead goat-keeping and, identified and discussed the problems militating against increased revenues from the enterprise. Data collected from 200 households keeping goats at their backyards from "five Local Government Areas (LGA) purposively selected from the State with the random selection of four villages from each LGA were analysed, using descriptive statistics, budgetary technique and multiple regression analysis. Results showed that the modal age group of the respondents was 41-60 years while women were more involved in goat-keeping than men. Goat-keeping is an income-supplementing undertaking carried out on small-scale as a part-time enterprise. Fifty three percent (53.0%) of the keepers had less' than 11 goats with the main objectives of meeting important financial needs such as paying children's school fees and having animals for ceremonies. The bulk (99.5%) breed of goats kept in the study area was the West African Dwarf while. 90.0% of the keepers practised the semi-intensive system. Results showed that the mean cost of parent stock per goat-keeper accounted over three-quarters (77.8% to 83.9%) of total operating costs; followed by mean feed cost per goat keeper (8.4% to 15.7%). The average total revenue per goat-keeper was highest in Ondo East LGA (N55, 411), followed by Akure North LGA (47,583) while Ifedore LGA ranked third with N46,188. With gross margin before tax ofN6,080 and N5,480 per goat-keeper respectively, the enterprise was most profitable in Ifedore LGA, followed by Owo LGA (N5,515 & N4,898) while Akure North LGA ranked third with (N5,347 & N4,606) respectively. The multiple regression analysis (in logarithm) showed that the included explanatory variables (years of experience of goat-keepers; household size; number of parents stock of goats; age of goat-keeper; cost of veterinary services and cost of feeds with estimated coefficients: 0.040; 0.103; 0.624;-0.035; 0.l14 and, 0.145 respectively) explained approximately 68.0% in the variations in the depended variable (that is total revenue earned by the goat-keeper) while the "F-test" showed that the model was significant at the 5.0% level. The constraints to homestead goat-keeping enterprises in the State were lack of capital for expansion, diseases and parasites, difficulty in procuring goat feeds, rampant pilfering of goats and inadequate space to keep animals.