Poultry production in Nigeria: exploiting its potentials for rural youth empowerment and entrepreneurship

Abstract

Sustainable rural development cannot occur without rural youth empowerment for entrepreneurship. In the face of the current staggering level of youth unemployment in Nigeria, there is the obvious need to seek for ways of empowering the youth for sustainable development. Poultry keeping stands as resource that can generate employment for millions of Nigerian youths in rural and peri-urban areas as entrepreneurs, skilled and unskilled workers. This paper through a review of literature examined the importance of poultry and explored how it can be exploited as a panacea for youth unemployment through entrepreneurship. It explores the potentials of it and shows the way the potentials of poultry can be harnessed for all youth empowerment programmes. It recommended that government, big farms, international and national corporations, should be involved in youth empowerment programmes through youth entrepreneurship in poultry production. Banks and other financial institutions should be mandated to assist the youth with soft loans in cash and kind through the provision of poultry infrastructure so as to make poultry farming attractive to the youth. A well-funded poultry extension advisory service need to be established to ensure the sustainability of the youth empowerment/ entrepreneurship poultry programmes across the country. Le développement rural durable ne peut que se faire sans l'autonomisation des jeunes ruraux pour l'esprit d'entreprise. Face au niveau actuel stupéfiant de chômage des jeunes au Nigéria, il est évident qu'il est nécessaire de chercher des moyens d'autonomiser les jeunes pour le développement durable. L'élevage de volailles est une ressource qui peut générer des emplois pour des millions de jeunes Nigérians dans les zones rurales et périurbaines en tant qu'entrepreneurs, travailleurs qualifiés et non qualifiés. Cet article, à travers un examen de la littérature, a examiné l'importance de la volaille et exploré comment elle peut être exploitée comme panacée pour le chômage des jeunes par l'entrepreneuriat. Il explore les potentiels de celui-ci et montre comment les potentiels de la volaille peuvent être exploités pour tous les programmes d'autonomisation des jeunes. Il a recommandé que le gouvernement, les grandes exploitations agricoles, les entreprises internationales et nationales participent à des programmes d'autonomisation des jeunes par l'entrepreneuriat des jeunes dans la production avicole. Les banques et autres institutions financières devraient avoir pour mandat d'aider les jeunes avec des prêts à taux doux en espèces et en nature par la fourniture d'infrastructures avicoles afin de rendre l'élevage avicole attrayant pour les jeunes. Un service consultatif bien financé de vulgarisation de la volaille doit être mis en place pour assurer la durabilité des programmes d'autonomisation des jeunes et d'entrepreneuriat de la volaille dans tout le pays.

Financial Re-Engineering and Financial Performance of Poultry Business in Nigeria

“…Hitherto, it is an industry that is more of family funded or informal funding system but is enjoying government attention resulting from the diversification policies targeting revenue from non-oil sector and the employment generation ability of the poultry industry. There are many formal funding programmes coming from both the private sector (majorly money-deposit banks and other financial institutions) and the public sector as championed by the Central Bank of Nigeria through institutions like BOA, NIRSAL, BOI, BOD and SMEDAN (Ajala, Ogunjimi, Famuwagun, & Adebimpe, 2021;Olumide-Oyaniyi & Ajayi, 2019;Adeyonu, Ajiboye, Isitor, & Faseyi, 2017). The following hypotheses showing that financial re-engineering does not impact on the corporate performance of the poultry business in Nigeria were tested for the study.…”

The Impact of Credit Policy Environment on Poultry Production in Nigeria

“…These incentives have led to a sudden influx of people from diverse backgrounds into the poultry industry (Ajala et al, 2021).…”

Occurrence of Avian Haemosporidians in Rural chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) from Kaltungo, Northeastern Nigeria

“…Poultry farming, which provides a highly nutritious source of animal protein (meat and eggs) and is thought to be the most economical method of livestock production when compared to cattle, sheep, and goats, is a dependable and affordable livestock production system that can help protect vulnerable people from poverty and malnutrition (Osabohien et al, 2020;Mbuli et al, 2021;Li et al, 2022). The predominance of rural chickens in Nigeria's poultry sector is a good indicator that these species of birds need more attention for increased performance since they are among the most common and widely dispersed avian species among poultry birds worldwide (Ajala et al, 2021;Amato and Castellini, 2022). Unfortunately, there are a number of constraints that affect successful chicken production, including but not limited to the threat posed by infectious pathogens of bacterial, viral, parasitic, and protozoan origins (Alasadiy et al, 2020;Hafez and Attia, 2020).…”