Efficiency of Poultry Egg Farmers in Ondo State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study estimated the efficiency of Poultry-egg Farmers in Ondo State. The specific objectives were to estimate the technical, allocative and economic efficiency of egg production, profitability by scale of operation, identify factors affecting the efficiency of the farmers and examine the constraints they faced. The study adopted the multistage sampling procedure. Data were collected from 120 respondents through a structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, Gross margin, Cobb Douglas Stochastic Frontier production function and inefficiency effect model were used to analyze the data. The findings showed that 81.7% of the farmers were male and the mean age was 46.2. Most of the respondents constituting about 90.4% were married and majority (84.3%) had tertiary education. 68.7% of the respondents had access to credit facility. The profitability analysis showed that feed constituted the highest variable cost item. Small scale enterprise spent 83.80% on feed, medium scale spent 85.18% while large scale incurred 76.41% on feed. The technical efficiency result showed that 40.9% of the respondents were most efficient. The mean technical efficiency of the farmers was 83.1% while the minimum and maximum efficiencies were 13% and 97% respectively.

About 3.5% of the respondents were below 50% economic efficiency and the mean economic efficiency was 0.771. The allocative efficiency analysis revealed that farmers were at least 50% efficient and the mean allocative efficiency was 0.948. Inefficiency result showed that feed and stock had significant influence on egg production at (p=0.1). None of the identified socio-economic variables had significant influence on egg production. High cost of input was rated the major constraint and inadequate storage facilities was rated as the least constraint.