Economics of Garden Egg Production in Uzo-Uwani, Local Government Area, Enugu, State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study explored economics of garden egg production in Uzo-uani Local Government Area, Enugu State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling method was adopted for the study. On the whole, 60 garden egg producers were randomly sampled. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse data for realization of objectives. Results show that majority of the farmers were male (58.3%), dominant age brackets were 21-30 and 31-40 which comprised of 50% and 38.3% respectively. Household size of 6 and above dominated with 58.3%, and majority had secondary education constituting 81.7%. Access to extension and loan services was low with 75% and 58.3% of no access respectively. Most of the farmers (83.3%) had farm sizes of less than 1 hectare. OLS regression analysis for determinants of quantity of garden egg produced showed that gender, education and age were positively significant at (p < 0.05), (p < 0.01) and (p < 0.05) respectively. Also, access to loan, farming experience, farm size, fertilizer and labour were positively significant at (p < 0.05), (p < 0.05), (p < 0.01), (p < 0.01) and (p < 0.05) respectively. On the hand, cost of seeds was negatively significant at (p < 0.05). Net Farm Income (NFI) was ₦83,816.54. The most cultivated varieties of garden were the greenish white (50%), while the whitish round variety constituted 40.7%. The most practiced cropping systems among the farmers are the sole and mixed systems constituting (50%) and (45%) respectively. The study recommends that garden egg farmers in the study area should form cooperative societies to enable them acquire input at subsidized rate and access low interest credit from financial institutions in the area.