Technical indices of performance in poultry production by size in Ogun-State, Nigeria

Poultry production is a popular venture in Ogun State and intensive production gained prominence in Nigeria since the early 60s. Farmers in their attempt to use resources to achieve desired goals make decisions, which involve resource allocation. In the research certain questions were addressed. The research empirically investigated the performance of intensive poultry farms in Ogun State and estimated the technical efficiencies by size. A multistage sampling technique was employed to collect primary data from 140 farms in the State. The stochastic frontier production function analysis was adopted to determine the technical efficiency/inefficiency indices of resource use on the different farm sizes. MLE estimates of the econometric model revealed that flock size, labour, feed, fixed input and chemical input resources are the major factors associated with changes in poultry production. The level of technical efficiency varied widely across size groups, and efficiency was found to be higher among small and medium size farms than the large sizes. The mean farm specific technical efficiency indices were found to be 0.9984 0.9952 & 0.9771 for small, medium and large sizes. The conclusion is that technical efficiency decreases with size as farmers who operate on small sizes are constrained to allocate their meager resources more efficiently than the large size farms. (Af. J. of Livestock Extension: 2003 2: 24-29