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Risk management and determinants of farm output among small scale poultry farmers in Ekiti State, Nigeria

The study was carried out to investigate risk management and determinants of farm output among small scale poultry farmers in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Cross sectional data were collected from randomly sampled 120 poultry farmers with the use of a well-structured questionnaire. The data collected were analysed using frequency, percentage, mean, chart and ordinary least square (OLS) multiple regression analysis. The results of the study showed that production, financial, marketing, technological and human risks are the major sources of risks encountered by the poultry farmers. Disease outbreak, high cost of medication and vaccines, insufficient fund, lack of quality feed and fragility of poultry products are some of the risk situations in poultry farming in the study area. Risk management practices among the farmers are enterprise diversification, marketing and production strategies. The result of the multiple regression model (R 2 = 0.96) revealed that age, household size, stock size, capital input, farming experience, location, cost of medication and cost of labour (p<0.01) are the major determinant of farm output among poultry farmers. This shows that better risk management determines higher farm output. Based on the above findings, the study recommends that there should be adequate institutional supports in form of credits facilities, sales of day old chicks, quality feed, vaccines and drugs in government stores to poultry farmers for improved productivity. Keywords: food security, risk management, poultry farming, small scale farmers, Ekiti State