Contribution of poultry farming to households’ welfare: A case of enterprise diversification strategy by livestock farmers in Abuja, Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed the contribution of poultry farming to households’ welfare in Abuja, Nigeria.  Multistage sampling was used in selecting the respondents and data were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Results revealed that average age, household size, farm size and farm experience were 43.30 years, 6 persons, 869 birds and 8.01 years respectively. Additionally, the study found that poultry farming was profitable based on an average earned income of N397,768.36. It was found that the income realized from poultry farming helped in alleviating the poverty status of the farmers. Furthermore, results of the logistic regression revealed that farmers’ age, household size, years of farming experience, educational level and income had significant influences on the income earned from poultry farming. Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that there is need for farmers to be vigilant and at all times be on the watch so that any suspected sick birds should be isolated from the others and that government should intervene to subsidize farm inputs such as feeds and vaccines so that they should not only be affordable but also try to stabilize their prices for the farmers.