Understanding the Performance gap between Free-range and Conventional Poultry Production in West Africa

Running Head: POULTRY FARMING IN WEST AFRICA
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Understanding the Performance gap between Free-range and Conventional Poultry
Production

POULTRY FARMING IN WEST AFRICA 1
Executive Summary
This study covers all aspects of poultry farming in West Africa, which is a common
practice in rural as well as urban areas. It is the most commercialized of Nigeria’s agricultural
sub-sectors. A large portion of small-scale broiler farmers in Nigeria is rural dwellers and
regularly raises livestock, for example, broilers, pigeons etc. It is also focussing on free-range
poultry production, which states that the birds are restricted to the community entirely with
no entrance to separate the confinement and it is generally accepted where property is costly
and constrained. It is exceptionally delicate and suitability to consumers is high, paying little
respect to their religious beliefs. This research gives emphasis on increased access to feed,
need for farm expansion, and effective education for the farmers. In addition, the
performance gap between free-range and conventional poultry production, benefits of
research to agricultural academia, industries and rural farming.

POULTRY FARMING IN WEST AFRICA 2
Introduction
Poultry Farming is a common practice in urban and some rural areas. It has developed
and grown steadily over recent years. The agriculturists use a traditional prescription to treat
chickens. The primary prospect of poultry production is market access, training facility and
ease of management. Enhancing the management practice, educating farmers, and poultry
breeds are feasible options to enhance the livelihood of the household. It is an important
source of nutrition (protein), nutrition security and income for rural households. It is an
essential part of subsistence farming and the sale of poultry creates revenue to pay for
medical care and schooling to reimburse debts (Boateng, Zickermann & Kornahrens, 2006).
This period perceived an enormous development in the industry, particularly in the
West. The size of the business grew from less than 1 million in the mid- 1960s to more than
40 million by the early parts of the 1980s (Akanni, 2007). The development of the industry
has been sustained by government initiatives and inducements in terms of technological
support, training, input support services, and others. Many of the poultry specialised staff
were products of government promoting training programmes like diagnostic services and
vaccines, which are financed, by the government. In the following an effort has been made to
discuss research methodology and benefits to agricultural academia, agricultural industries
and rural farming (Wang, Shi, Dou & Sun, 2009).
Research Methodology
Study area
This study was accomplished in Nigeria where poultry farming constitutes a main
component of the agricultural economy. It comprises 80% of the populace, which lives in
rural areas and 90% of this rural populace are farmers. Figure 1 illustrates that the percentage
of regular calories from all cattle production and the share of that coming from eggs and
poultry which states that 5% of the Nigeria population domestic production comes from
livestock. As per FAO Report (2010), poultry comes quarter among bases of animal proteins
for human intake in Nigeria and subsidizes around 27% of the national meat production.
Fruit crops, for example, pineapple, oranges, and livestock production are well known

POULTRY FARMING IN WEST AFRICA 3
Figure 1 Per cent of daily calories from Livestock of Nigeria
(Schneider, Gugerty, Plotnick & Anderson, 2010)
Sampling Procedure
For the purpose of this study, researchers use a simple random sampling method was
used for choosing the respondents. The respondents are farmers who rear broiler on small
scale were randomly selected to 50 respondents that was the sample size for this study. The
area is mainly rural with agriculture as their main occupation. The culture of the people
residing is homogeneous and is communality of shared customs, which ensures social order
and harmony (Okitoi, L. Ondwasy, Siamba & Nkurumah, 2007).
Data Collection
The facts for this study were selected from both primary and secondary sources using
the personal interview for poultry farmers and structured questionnaire for researchers
through random sampling technique. Descriptive statistical tools were utilized to examine the
socioeconomic attributes of the respondents, while the risk approaches embraced using a
Likert rating scale. It consists of socio-economic factors, management system adopted, a
method of land acquisition, and input-output data, for example, the source of labour,
production constraint, data on yield of broiler production.