Socio-Economic Characteristics Analysis of Backyard Poultry Farming in Etsako Central Local Government Area, Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study analyzed the Socio-Economic Characteristics of Backyard Poultry Farming in Etsako Central Local Government Area, Edo State, Nigeria using multi-stage sampling technique to select three out of six districts in the Local Government Area with a well structure questionnaire administered to 150 randomly selected respondents while only 107 were retrieved. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics tools. The results revealed that majority (72%) of the respondents were female with most (65.4%) of them not older than 40 years in age. Most (86%) of them has one formal education or the other and are involved in only poultry rearing (58.9%) while 41.1% rears both poultry and small ruminants with 68.2% of them rearing local breeds of poultry. The result revealed that majority (72.9%) of the respondents practice extensive system of rearing with no fewer than 49.5% having flock size of between 1 and 10 birds. Most respondents (84.1%) engaged in backyard poultry rearing for income purpose. Inadequate funding (79.4%) and activities of predators (77.6%) remain the most reported severe constraints to backyard poultry rearing in the study area. It is recommended that Stake holders should make financial supports in terms of grants and single digit loan available to the respondents while the farmers too could group themselves into cooperative and thrift societies to enable them create avenue for soft loan among themselves.