Comparative Analysis of Technical Efficiency of Broiler and Egg Production Enterprises in Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the Technical efficiency of Broiler and Layer production enterprises in Niger State,Nigeria during the 2010 production season. Farm level data were collected from 120 broiler and 120 egg farmers in the state using a well structured questionnaire. Multi-stage random sampling technique was used to elicit primary data from 240 respondents. The Stochastic frontier production function was used to determine the technical efficiencies of broiler and Egg production enterprises. Both broiler and Egg farmers are not fully technically efficient. The mean technical efficiency if broiler and layer enterprises are 0.75 and 0.86 respectively. This implies that there is a wide scope for increasing farm profit by reallocating existing resources more optically. Level of education, credit status and membership of cooperative has positive influence on technical efficiency of broiler enterprise in the study area. In layer production enterprise, farming experience and gender of respondents are found to have positive influence on technical efficiency. Therefore, the study recommends that credit should be made available at terms and time convenient to farmers to enhance their level of efficiency. Farmers should also form cooperative societies to enable them have access to productive inputs to aid large scale operation. Extension services should be improved and intensified to impact technical knowledge on the farmers. This should include creating awareness for the women farmers to profit potentials of broiler farming so that they could be encouraged to undertake the enterprise.