Profitability of Backyard Poultry Farming in Sokoto Metropolis, Sokoto State, North-West, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was carried out to determine the profitability of backyard poultry production in Sokoto metropolis. Multistage sampling was used to draw 100 samples of backyard poultry farmers used for the study. Data were obtained using structured questionnaire. Data analyses were done using descriptive statistics, farm budgeting and linear regression. Results showed that majority of the backyard poultry farmers were aged between 21-30 years (57.14%). Most of them were male (62%) and have acquired tertiary education (82%). The flock size owned by the majority (64%) was between the ranges of 10-50 birds. The major source of investment capital of the enterprise was personal savings (82%). The results further showed that variable costs were the most important costs accounting for 88.41% of the total cost and the net farm income per respondent was N48, 745.58 per annum. The linear regression
result revealed that cost of chicks (P< 0.01), housing (P< 0.1) and drinkers (P< 0.1) had significant positive contribution while cost of heating (P< 0.01) had significant negative contribution to output generation from the enterprise. Disease outbreak was the most serious problem affecting backyard poultry production in the study area. It is concluded that the enterprise was profitable and it was dominated by male who were mostly married. There was no credit availability to boost the enterprise
and farmers in the business were faced with the problem of disease outbreak. These invariably affected the overall performance of the enterprise. It was therefore, recommended that credit institutions be encouraged to make loan available to those people engaged in the enterprise.