Abstract
World poultry production is increasing yearly yet the demand for the products has not been met. This study assessed the problems and prospects of poultry rearing in Lagelu Local Government Area of Oyo State, Nigeria. The study was carried out among poultry farmers with interview schedule of Eighty (80) farmers using structured questionnaires. The study examined social characteristics of poultry farmers, benefits of poultry production, needs and constraints of poultry production in the study area. Descriptive statistical analysis was used to analyze data. The study revealed that 73.80% of the respondents were males and 26.20% were females, 52.60% had tertiary education, 36.20% had secondary school education and 11.20% had primary school education. The result showed that 67.50% of the respondents had increase in egg production, 15.00% had average increase in egg production and 17.50% had no increase in egg production. The respondents had maximum income benefit with 15.00% always having high income, 51.20% low income and 33.80% indicated indifference in their income. In this research work, the poultry farmers shows various needs to boost their production, where 91.20% have problems of good storage facilities, 92.50% with problems of pest and disease control, 88.80% request for training for farmers and 53.8% aimed at credit facilities. The major problems that poultry farmers encounter in the study area are inadequate capital (100.00%), pest and disease (100.00%), lack of credit facilities (100.0%) and high cost of feeding (80.0%) of the respondents.
 Keywords: Poultry, production, farmers, problems, constraints
Highlights
Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, meat and feathers
The socio economic characteristics of poultry farmers in the study area is as presented in Table1.The result showed that 73.80% of the respondents were males while 26.20% were females
Poultry rearing serves as a good subsidiary occupation that supplements the income of smallholder farm families and rural households in most developing countries (Anang et al, 2013).The result indicates that the age distribution of the respondents within the range of 20-39 years has 81.30% of the total, which showed that most of the farmers were agile to carry out the production activities as age is a factor to be considered with labour required for the production process. 52.60% of the respondents had tertiary education and this could improve the ability of the farmers to carry out careful observation and access information through technology, complying with Amos (2006) who stated that education is important for the abduction of new innovations
Summary
Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, meat and feathers. Reasonable numbers of these birds are typically members of the suborder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, quails, and turkeys). Poultry production as an aspect of livestock production is important to the biological needs, economic growth and social development of the people in any nation (Oladeebo and Ambe-Lamidi, 2007). The contribution of poultry production (meat and eggs) to total livestock output increased from 26.0% in 1995 to 27.0% in 1999 with an increase in egg production alone accounting for about 13.0% during the period (Ojo, 2003). Despite the acknowledged importance of poultry production, the industry is still characterized by low production level due to limited finance for the procurement of basic poultry equipment and materials (Akanni, 2007).The result of this is that many of the small-scale poultry farmers are not encouraged to increase their productivity; thereby progressing from small-scale production to large scale production by farmers is hindered which could be detrimental to the rate of increase of the industry
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