ABSTRACT
The study focused on the economic analysis of feed usage among broiler chicken farmers in Edo State, Nigeria. The study described the socio-economic characteristics, determined the gross margins, net profit and the returns on investment, also determined the optimum cost of the non-conventional broiler feed formulation ingredients, and ended by identifying the constraints faced by non-conventional feed broiler farmers in the study area.
A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed in selecting a total of 180 respondents, half of which were non-conventional feed (NCF) and the conventional feed (CF) broiler farmers’. The data collected were analysed using descriptive statistic such as frequency counts, means and percentage, Gross margin analysis, linear programming (LP) methods, and Likert scale.
The results of the analysis showed that majority (69.4%) of the farmers were males, while 68.3% were married. The mean age for the respondents was 43 years, with an average farming experience of 14 years. Findings further showed that the conventional and non-conventional feed broiler chicken farmers made a net profit of N401,619.86 & N642,186.34with an average stock size for non-conventional and conventional feed broiler chicken farmers of 293 and 235 birds, respectively. The returns on investment were N1.72 and N1.41 per naira invested for the conventional and non-conventional broiler chicken farmers, it also showed that feed cost for conventional and non-conventional feed broiler chicken farmers accounted for up to 61.3% and 51.0% of the total cost for broiler production in the study area. The Linear Programming (LP) technique was used to determine the optimum cost and minimize the cost for broiler chicken ration. The result of the LP showed the best proportionate mix of ingredients and their optimum cost of the rations for (chick mash, grower mash, and broiler starter and finisher types) in this study. The least-cost ration for chick mash produced by linear programming model consisted of 51.95% yellow maize, 29.46% soya bean, 0.0% fish meal, 2.1% bone meal, 13.37% wheat offal, 0.0% palm kernel cake, 0.0% methionine, 2.2% limestone, 0.32 lysine, 0.2% premix, 0.1% enzyme and 0.3% salt. For grower’s mash 29.3% yellow maize, 6.95% soya bean, 0.0% fish meal, 0.0% bone meal, 49.61% wheat offal, 13.4% palm kernel cake, 0.0% methionine, 0.0% limestone, 0.15% lysine, 0.2% premix, 0.1% enzyme and 0.3% salt. For broiler starter 56.01% yellow maize, 30.2% soya bean, 4.98% fish meal, 0.0% bone meal, 0.0% wheat offal, 7.98% palm kernel cake, 0.05% methionine, 0.0% limestone, 0.19% lysine, 0.2% premix, 0.1% enzyme and 0.3% salt. For broiler finisher 59.97% yellow maize, 32.58% soya bean, 0.0% fish meal, 0.0% bone meal, 4.02% wheat offal, 0.25% palm kernel cake, 0.09% methionine, 2.2% limestone, 0.29 lysine, 0.2% premix, 0.1% enzyme and 0.3% salt. The percentage reduction from the initial cost per 25kg in this study were, 6.4%, 25.6%, 3.2% and 4.4% for chick mash, grower’s mash, broiler starter and broiler finisher, respectively. The constraints identified as very serious were inadequate finance and high cost of feed ingredients. Followed by the unavailability of feed ingredients, high cost of labour, high cost of transportation, ready market for product and high cost of medication as serious constraints. This study concludes that broiler chicken production is highly profitable. Also, broiler producers are advised to adopt personal feed compounding and the non-conventional feed broiler farmers should adjust to the proposed optimal solution by this study.
