Analysis of Small Scale Poultry Farmers’ Perception of Farm Record Keeping in Ilorin West Local Government Area of Kwara State, Nigeria.

Abstract

This study analyses small scale poultry farmers’ perception of farm record keeping in Ilorin West Local Government area of Kwara State, Nigeria. Statistical tools such as descriptive statistics, chi- square test and probit model were employed for data analysis. A sample of 120 farmers selected using simple random sampling techniques were used to generate primary data. The results revealed that majority of the sampled farmers were between 21-50 years. The average number of poultry birds kept was 300birds. The chi-square test of independence showed that, there is significant relationship between (age, educational level, marital status of respondents and experience) and their level of income in the study area. The result of the probit model revealed that age was negative and significant at 10% while educational level, number of birds, extension contact, access to credit and cooperative membership were significant at 1% and experience was not significant. Lack of awareness, lack of knowledge about record keeping, farm size, time consuming and no benefit were the major problems militating against farm record keeping. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that, record keeping has great potentials to increase farmer’s income because production and financial records kept by some farmers were used in getting credits from financial institutions. However, effort should be made by government and non-government agencies to mobilize and encourage poultry farmers to keep records by given awards to the best record keeper.