Socio-demographic Characteristics and Economics of Egg Farming Enterprise among Farming Households in Enugu East Local Government Area, Enugu State

Abstract

The study aimed at examining the viability of egg farming enterprise as well as ascertaining the socio-economic characteristics of egg-farming households in Enugu East Local Government Area, Enugu State. Ninety copies of structured questionnaires were administered to egg farmers using random sampling techniques and descriptive statistics, budgetary analysis and multiple regression models were used to analyze the data. The results indicated that were 66.0% male farmers, 42.22% were within the age range of 31-40 years, 73.33% were married, 56.11% had post-secondary education and 48.0% were small scale egg farming households who completely depended on family labour. The identified small scale farmers extensively managed their flock using kitchen waste which was further supplemented with commercial feeds. Cost of feed recorded the highest threat to egg farming within a production cycle of 12 months. The net farm income for the small, medium and large scale farms recorded ₦529,970.00, ₦ 1,503,606.92 and ₦13,035,052.44 respectively. The capital turnover of small-scale (1.67%), medium-scale (1.89%) and large-scale (2.02%) were largely determined by quantity of feed, labour used and flock size. The results of the multiple regression analysis of the determinants of egg production recorded R² (0.626) and the adjusted R² (0.597) implying that a unit increase in any of number of laying birds, quality of feed consumed in kilogramme and labour used in Man-days, would increase egg production by 62.6%. The study concludes that egg faming is economically profitable especially in large-scale farming. It is recommended that increase in scale of operation to optimize economics of scale which will further improve the socio-economic characteristics of the egg-farming households positively in the study area.