JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE AND AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY (Volume 10)

Abstract

The study examines the entrepreneurial activities and technical competence of staff in poultry production in selected farms in Kwara State, Nigeria. Proportionate random sampling technique was used to select 147 respondents used for the study based on their sampling frame. Questionnaire was used to elicit information from the respondents and data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, likert scale and Pearson Product Moment Correlation. The result shows that majority of the poultry staff were male (97.5%), married (79.20%), educated (90.8%) with a mean of 3 as average years of experience. 37.5% of the poultry staff were between the age range of 31-35 years. The study also reveals that ability to mobilize and maximize resources and skills for the farm, keep viable farm records, identification of training needs, with mean of 2.0 ( were among the entrepreneurial activities that were highly performed by the poultry staff. The result further reveal that poultry staff were very competent in handling of improved breeding stocks, brooding operation, vaccination, use of drugs, record keeping, and feed ingredients in the study area however untimely availability of good day old chicks, high cost of vaccination and drugs and high cost of feed ( ≥2.0) were the major setback affecting poultry production in the study area. The study concludes that in spite of high entrepreneurial activities and high competency observed in poultry staff, there are major setbacks affecting poultry production in the study area. The study therefore recommends that vaccines and drugs for poultry and other veterinary use should be subsidized by government. Moreover, capacity training and seminars for poultry staff should be done to enable them cope with the challenges of modern poultry farming.