Socio-economic traits of small-scale poultry farmers and level of adoption of poultry management practices before and after training

Abstract

The study examined the impact of entrepreneurship training on rural poultry farmers’ adoption of improved
management practices in Enugu State, Nigeria. Data were collected from two hundreds randomly selected
rural poultry farmers that were trained on entrepreneurship by use of questionnaire. Data were analyzed
with both descriptive and inferential statistics. Results showed that before the training, majority (70%) of
the rural poultry farmers were unaware of some of the improved management practices like record-keeping,
consulting veterinary doctors, vaccination, debeaking, etc. However, after the training, all the farmers
(100%) were aware of the management practices and majority (85%) of poultry farmers adopted these
practices. Educational level (t=3.3501), farming experience (t=2.9511), income level (t=2.6188) as well as
farm size (t=2.8183) were found highly significant and positively related to farmers adoption of the
improved poultry management practices. Constraints identified were high cost of inputs (80%), low capital
outlay (95%), difficulty in obtaining loan (80%) and poor extension (75%) visits. Government should
organize more entrepreneurial training and provide soft loan to farmers as to facilitate adoption of the
improved management practices thereby improving poultry meat supply and ensuring food security