Accessibility of Agroforestry Farmers to Credit Facilities on Poultry Egg Production in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Poultry egg production is an economically viable investment among Agroforestry farmers in Southwestern Nigeria but paucity of funds and high cost of inputs are major problems in their business operations. This study focused on the effects of accessibility and non-accessibility of Agroforestry farmers to credit on poultry egg production. Data were randomly collected from 120 poultry farmers with a structured questionnaire which comprised of 60 credit beneficiaries (CB) and 60 non-credit beneficiaries (NCB) Agroforestry farmers. The data were analyzed with mean, percentages, frequency distribution, logit and multiple regression analyses. The results of the analyses indicated that the mean age of the CB and NCB Agroforestry farmers were ±46 and ±56 years respectively. Majority of the farmers were married CB (77.4%) and NCB (81.0%). The logit regression analysis revealed that the age of the respondents had a positive relationship with access to credit at 5% level of significance. Multiple regression model for credit accessed farmers indicated that age, family size, drug quantity are positively related to output and are significant at 10% and 1% levels. Multiple regression result for NCB farmers shows that the quantity of drug used is positively related to the egg output at 1% level. The hypotheses tested show that there was a significant relationship between socio-economic characteristics and the egg production in the study area and; between the output of farmers who are credit beneficiaries and non-credit beneficiaries. The major constraints to poultry production in Agroforestry system were limited finances, high cost of inputs and poor quality of day old chicks. Accessibility to formal credit facilities has a key role to play in Agroforestry poultry farming. Individuals, Governments and NGOs should therefore facilitate empowerment of youths in poultry egg production.