Technical Efficiency in Poultry Broiler Production in Umuahia Capital Territory of Abia State, Nigeria.

Evidence had shown that the critical issue in poultry production in Nigeria is that of low production and inefficiency in resource allocation and utilization. This has adversely affected the production and supply chain. This study was designed to measure the level of technical efficiency and its determinants in poultry broiler production in Umuahia Capital Territory of Abia State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 60 poultry broiler farmers from which the input-output data were collected using a structured questionnaire. The estimated stochastic (Cobb-Douglas) frontier production function showed that stock-size, feed intake and labour input were critical variables that affected farmers output at 1.0% risk level respectively. Drugs and medication and depreciation cost were not significant at given levels. The result showed that the estimated farm level technical efficiency ranged from 08% and 97% with a mean of 75%. The socio-economic determinants of technical efficiency were Extension contact, household size, age and educational level. Therefore, to close the protein insufficiency gap, government should motivate Extension Agents to increase the frequency of contact to the farmers and thus, aid in increasing broiler production efficiency. Though the technical efficiency of the poultry broiler farmers is high but they are not fully technically efficient. There is room for efficiency growt