Resource use and technical efficiency of small scale poultry farmers in Enugu State, Nigeria: A stochastic frontier analysis

Abstract

The study examined the factors that affect poultry production among small scale poultry farmers in Enugu State, Nigeria. Thirty six respondents were sampled from a list of poultry farmers derived from Enugu State Agricultural Development Programme Office. The Cob Douglas stochastic production function was used to determine factors that affect poultry output as well as the factors that affect the technical efficiency of poultry production. Farm size (p = 0.05), capital input (p = 0.01), labour input (p = 0.05), quantity of feed used (p = 0.05) as well as drugs and veterinary services (p = 0.05) were the major factors that determined poultry output while age of farmer (p = 0.05), production systems (p = 0.1), farming experience (p = 0.1) and educational status (p = 0.1) determined the technical efficiency of poultry production. The mean technical efficiency of poultry production by small scale poultry farmers in Enugu State, Nigeria is 62%, implying that there are yet about 38% of chances for improvement on the technical efficiency of production. Given the existing technology of the poultry farmers, proper management that bears in mind the use of improved breeds and increased education of the poultry farmers on current techniques of production are policy measures that could help improve on the technical efficiency of poultry production in the study area. © Asian Network for Scientific Information, 2011.