Assessment of the extent of poultry farmers’ participation in agricultural insurance scheme in Kwara State, Nigeria

Abstract

Poultry production is affected by weather-related perils, disease outbreak, financial risk, market risk, and technological failure of the production. The study assesses the extent of poultry farmers’ participation in the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Scheme in Kwara State, Nigeria. A 2-stage sampling procedure was used in selecting 600 respondents for the study. Data were collected using
questionnaire and interview schedule and analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistical tools. The mean age of the respondents is 49 years, household size of 6 persons, monthly income of N105,430.00. they rarely visit places for NAIS information (84.1%) as agreed by most (58.6%) of them with mean farming experience of 11 years and flock size of 1,050 birds. Majority are males
(78.1%), Muslims (86.4%), with tertiary education (60.3%). Majority (58.6%) of the respondents shows low participation in NAIS program. They have high knowledge level (87.3%) of NAIS. The  Chi-square analysis shows positive relationship between knowledge level and participation in NAIS (χ²= 34.313; p=0.000 @ 1% level of significance). There are several constraints to participation in NAIS except; poor knowledge (and inaccessibility to insurance personnel (=0.98), cultural influences ( =0.54), poor infrastructures ( =0.88)
=0.67). It was concluded that the clienteles have more knowledge of NAIS but poor participation. It was recommended that all severe constraints to participation in NAIS be mitigated, more awareness campaign on NAIS be instituted on the benefits of NAIS utilization to increase participation of clienteles in the study area.