Socio-Economic Characteristics Of Poultry Business Enterpreneurs In Imo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study focused on the socio-economic characteristics of poultry business enterprises in Imo state, Nigeria. One hundred and ten (110) entrepreneurs participated in the study. Most of the respondents (73.6%) were married, fell within the age cohort of 31 to 50 years (70.9%) and had between 4-7 children (62.9%), while over 60% were also males. Acquisition of post primary education was a very important factor in going into the practice, with 56.4% of the respondents not having any formal training in any agriculture related discipline. Thirty (30), 18.2 and 14.5% of the practitioners had farmers, traders and teachers respectively as parents. However only 17.4% could trace their involvement in poultry business to parental influence. While 67.3% of the respondents have been in the business for 1 to 10 years, 61.8% were combining it with other means of livelihood with teaching and crop farming (30.9 and 30.0% respectively) predominating. Sixty-nine (62.7%) of the practitioners employed others to help them in their business while 68.1% of those employing workers, employed between 1 and 5 persons. Again, 98.2% of capital sources utilized in the business were personal, while 1.8% was from other sources. Seventy-four (67.3%) of the respondents own automobile, while 84 (76.4%) own landed properties, including personal houses and other tangible properties because of their involvement in poultry business enterprise. The results showed that poultry business is a lucrative one.


Journal of Agriculture and Social Research Vol. 4 (2) 2004: 100-111