Poultry Farmers Adaptation Strategies to Consequences of COVID-19 Pandemic in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the adaptation strategies to the consequence of COVID-19 pandemic on Poultry Farmers in Oyo State. Multistage sampling procedure was employed to select five Key Informants and five Focus Group Discussion from the respondents respectively. Data on effects of lockdown, coping strategies and role of PAN were collected and analysed using constant comparison analysis.The effects of pandemic in severity order include, poor marketing due to collapse of the standard delivery system (85%); glut of the poultry products (80%), laying stock reduction (25%) and folding up of the enterprise (15%) burying of unsold bad eggs (5%).Coping strategies employed were sourcing financial support from cooperative societies (85%), sold produce on credit (75%) and sourcing ICT-based marketing information (70%). The role played by PAN include taking exemption letter from police (Police wireless message) to move poultry products for sale; mediating unfavourable government taxation and relevant information dissemination via WhatsApp group platform. There is the need to develop an emergency’s-smart resilience programme for the poultry industry. Measures adopted to manage emergencies such as COVID-19 should not impede the flow of agricultural products and inputs from the onset.