Abstract

The study investigated the effect of cooperative on the income of smallholding poultry farmers in Ogun State, Nigeria. Poultry farmers typically produce to satisfy household food needs or make profit from selling farm produce. Descriptive analysis was used to describe the socio-economic characteristics of the poultry farmers. A two-stage random sampling technique was used to select the number of respondents. The first stage involved the selection of five (5) communities from the Local Government Area. The second stage was the selection of thirty (30) poultry farmers from each of the selected communities. A total of one hundred and fifty (150) poultry farmers were selected for the purpose of this study. Poultry farmers (77.6%) in the study area were found to be within the age bracket of 45 – 64 years. It was revealed therefore that majority of the poultry farmers (67.2%) are married with 5 – 6 members and 38.4% of the poultry farmers in the study area have no formal education. The finding also revealed that majority of the poultry farmers (78.4%) are having poultry farming as their main source of income. Also, it was unveiled that 9.6% of the poultry farmers are into civil service and 8.0% of the poultry farmers are into businesses and serve as their source of income. The results revealed therefore that the Total Variable Cost (TVC) incurred in poultry farming in the study area was estimated to be N163,440.00 which comprised the cost (2.31%). The Total Fixed Cost (TFC) was estimated to be N236,028.00. Evidence showed that household size is significant to household income at 1% level. It is therefore recommended that capacity training of poultry farmers to enable them to cope with the challenges of modern poultry farming and commercialization of small-scale layers poultry production should be carried out.

Key Words: Cooperative, Profit, Credit, Income, Poultry