Journal of
Agricultural Extension and Rural Development

  • Abbreviation: J. Agric. Ext. Rural Dev
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 2141-2170
  • DOI: 10.5897/JAERD
  • Start Year: 2009
  • Published Articles: 484

Article in Press

Assessment of poultry farmers’ contact with veterinary services for poultry development in Ekiti State, Nigeria

Oluwaseun Adojutelegan, Temitope Makanju and Jones Akangbe

This study assessed poultry farmers’ contact with veterinary services for poultry development by poultry farmers in Ekiti State, Nigeria. A structured questionnaire schedule was used to obtain data from a total number of 102 poultry farmers who were purposively selected from the study area. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson’s product moment correlation (PPMC). Findings showed that majority of the respondents were male with mean age of 35.5 years. 80.4% were married, 52.2% of them had tertiary education, while 52.9% had farming as their primary occupation. A proportion (37.3%) had no contact with the veterinary officer. Vaccination and treatment of birds ranked the highest in terms of preventive and curative services rendered to the farmers. PPMC analysis showed that education (r = -0.302) and membership of poultry association (r = 0.206) had significant relationships with access to veterinary services at 0.05 level. Also, PPMC analysis showed that no linkage to capital (r = 0.276), no linkage to market (r = 0.223), delay in vaccination (r = 0.195), wrong administration of vaccines (r=0.224) and inadequate veterinary officers (r = 0.342) had significant relationship with poultry farmers contact with veterinary services at 0.05 level. In conclusion, contact efforts of farmers with veterinary officers were low and inadequate; this study therefore recommends that poultry farmers should make regular contact with veterinary officers so that farmers can derive maximum benefits as this will improve livestock production in the state and the country at large.

Keywords: Veterinary services, poultry development, farmers’ contact, extension services.