Abstract
This study investigated the cost implications of raising broilers under the battery cage and deep litter system of poultry production. The data used in the study were obtained from a cross-sectional survey of broiler farmers in Edo State from October– December, 2013. A multi-stage sampling process was used to select the 211 respondents for this study. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and profitability ratios. The study showed that the mean age of farmers that adopted the battery cage system was 48 years and 46 years for the farmers that used deep litter system. The Gross Margin analysis gave a value of ₦ 2,422.24 and a Net Farm Income (NFI) of ₦ 2,412.40 per bird for battery cage system while the deep litter system had a gross margin of ₦ 1,601.77 and NFI of ₦ 1,593.80 per bird. The profitability ratios showed Rate of Return on Investment (RRI) of about 92%, Return on Labour (RL) of ₦ 18.03, Return on Feed (RF)of ₦ 144.22 and Return Per Naira Invested (RNI) of ₦ 0.91 for the battery cage system as against RRI (71%), RL ( ₦ 30.28), RF ( ₦ 117.95) and RNI ( ₦ 0.71) for the deep litter system. This shows that both systems were profitable and viable in the study area. It was therefore concluded that farmers should be enlightened on the relative profitability/viability of the battery cage system of broiler production over the deep litter system in the study area, as a guide to future investment in the enterprise. Keywords: Battery cage, Cost, Deep litter, Net Farm Income, Viability
Highlights
The livestock industry is an important sub-sector of the agricultural sector of Nigeria’s economy
The animal protein consumption in Nigeria is less than 8 gm per person per day, which is a far cry from the FAO minimum recommendation (Niang and Jubin, 2001)
Three profitability/viability indicators, Gross margin (GM), Net Farm Income (NFI) and return per naira invested were estimated for the different production systems
Summary
The livestock industry is an important sub-sector of the agricultural sector of Nigeria’s economy. In Nigeria, the production of food has not increased at the rate that can meet the demand from an increasing population. The apparent disparity between the rate of food production and demand for food in Nigeria has led to increasing resort to food importation and high rate of increase in food prices. The demand and supply gap for animal protein intake is quite high and the Food Agriculture Organization (FAO, 2003) recommends that the minimum intake of protein by an average person should be 65 gm per day; of this, 36 gm (i.e. 55.3%) should come from animal sources. The animal protein consumption in Nigeria is less than 8 gm per person per day, which is a far cry from the FAO minimum recommendation (Niang and Jubin, 2001). Poultry products offer considerable potential for bridging the nutritional gap in view of the fact that high yielding exotic poultry are adaptable to our environment and the technology of production is relatively simple with returns on investment appreciably high
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