EFFECT OF CONTRACT FARMING ON THE PRODUCTIVITY AND TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF POULTRY PRODUCTION

ABSTRACT

This study examined the impact of contract farming on the productivity and technical efficiency of poultry production, broiler production in particular. The objectives of this study were to determine the socio-economic characteristics of all respondents involved in poultry production, identify the terms and conditions generally agreed upon by principal and agent, determine the amount of credit, inputs and technical know-how that was provided by the statutory body in collaboration with the off-taker and to determine the impact of readily available farm credits, inputs and technical knowledge on the productivity and technical efficiency of poultry farmers. Data were collected through the use of questionnaire from a sample size of 40 respondents made up of off-takers, contract farmers and farmers not involved in contract farming using a one-stage sampling technique. This was achieved using simple descriptive statistics such as mean, percentage, minimum, maximum, tables and charts; and inferential statistics such as; stochastic production frontier model. The results of this study revealed the socio-economic characteristics of respondents where majority were females (75%), married (77.5%) and educated with a Bachelor’s degree (77.5%). Major occupation of respondents was farming (35%), while that of contract farmers in particular was entrepreneurship (46.7%). Lastly, the mean age and family size were 37 and 6 respectively. The terms and conditions highlighted included; membership in a cooperative society, must be active farmers, agreement between at least two persons and nature of contract agreement. The amount of credit, inputs and technical know-how that was provided by the statutory body in collaboration with the off-taker was found to be more than those obtained by individual farmers not involved in contract farming. Finally, the technical efficiency of poultry production was seen to be impacted significantly by level of education at 5% level of risk and productivity was significantly impacted by quantity of feed at 5% level of risk. Therefore, there is a need for continual government support via statutory bodies to encourage multipartite contract farming to improve productivity and technical efficiency