Profitability of chicken egg production in the pre and post covid-19 lockdown, in Agbani Agricultural Zone, Enugu State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study analyzed the profitability of chicken egg production in the pre and post COVID-19 lockdown in Agbani Agricultural Zone of  Enugu State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study examined the socioeconomic characteristics of the farmers; evaluated the profitability of  chicken egg production pre and post COVID-19 period. Multistage, purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used to  select 120 respondents. Structured questionnaire and direct observation were used to generate data for the study. Data were analyzed  using descriptive statistics like frequencies, means, percentages, and budgetary technique. The major results showed that the mean age  of the chicken egg farmers were 41 years, most of whom (54%) were males. The gross margin of poultry egg production during pre  COVID19 lockdown was ₦306,000 (2019) and ₦280,000 in post COVID-19 lockdown (2022) with a return per naira invested of 0.16 and 0.12 respectively. The z-test carried out showed that the difference between the mean profits before and after COVID-19 lockdown was  statistically significant at 5% level of significance. It is recommended that farmers form viable farm level cooperative bodies to facilitate  access to technology packages disseminated by the government to curb the adverse effect of Covid-19 lockdown on the profit from  chicken egg production.