Productivity and allocative efficiency of quail (<i>Cortunix Coturnix japonica</i>) production using different rearing techniques in Nigeria

Abstract

Small scale poultry production plays a major role in bridging the protein deficit and sustain rural livelihood in Nigeria. This study assesses the productivity  and allocative efficiency (AE) of quail (Cortunix coturnix japonica) production using different rearing techniques in Nigeria. In this study, both  primary and secondary data were collected from 193 quail poultry farmers comprising of 78 battery cage system (BCS) and 115 deep litter system (DLS)  operators using amulti- stage random sampling procedure. Descriptive statistics, profitability indices and stochastic frontier function were used to analyse  the data. The stochastic frontier cost function was used to estimate the factors influencing AE of farmers inquail production. The results show a  gross margin of N1, 455.51, net poultry returns of N1157.47 per quail bird for BCS thrives better compared to N800.00 and N751.96 estimated in DLS  respectively. The estimated profit margin (26.81%) and return on investment (1.37) in BCS were also higher than 26.54%and1.36 respectively in DLS. The  ROI result indicates that a N1.00 investment inBCS and DLS yields N0.37 and N0.36 respectively. AE results revealed that thecoefficient of costs of feed  (0.287), hired labour (-0281), family labour (0.309) and depreciation of fixed items (-005) were found to be statistically significant variables in BCS quail  production. Conversely, costs of feed (0.109), cost of hired labour (-0.007) and family labour (0.188) statistically influence DLS quail production. The  inefficiency sources model for BCS showed that age, formal education, access to credit and investment are the significant factors. Furthermore, formal  education, access to production credit and level of investment contributed significantly to the explanation of efficiency in DLS production unit. Therefore, it  is suggested that quail farmers should strive to optimize efficient use of inputs to increase output and profit. This will bean impetus to achieving  sustainable poultry production in the studied areas.