Analysis of Poultry Feed Marketing in Ahiazu Mbaise Local Government Area in Imo State

Abstract

This Paper investigated the Analysis of Poultry Feed Marketing in Ahiazu Mbaise Local Government Area in Imo State.  This study was aimed at determining the socio-economic profile of traders distributing poultry feed, the channels of poultry feed distribution from producers to farmers, the socio-economic factors influencing the income of traders dealing on poultry feed in the study area and also the factors militating against effective marketing of poultry feed in Ahiazu Mbaise L.G.A. of Imo State.  The study area is located in Ahiazu Mabise were they have enough poultry feed marketers.  Seven villages were selected from the thirteen villages that make up the Local Government Area and 3 markets were selected.  For the study which includes Afor-ukwu, Afor-ogbe and Nwoaha market and a total of (70) questionnaires were administered to the wholesalers and retailers of poultry feed marketers who were randomly selected from the three (3) poultry feed markets.

Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the socio-economic profile of the respondents; it was also used to analyze the problems faced by the respondents in the study area.  The factors affecting income of the poultry feed marketers in the study area were determined using multiple regressions.  The lead equation which was the semi-log regression model was chosen based on apriori expectation which gave an R² value of 0.866 meaning that 86.6% of the variance in income when explained by the independent variables of Age, Educational level, Purchase cost and cost of transportation which were significant in the equation.

The marketing margin and efficiency was archived using the marketing margin analysis.  For both wholesalers and retailers, given a margin of 14.2% and 19% respectively.

The research revealed three (3) marketing channels: the producers sell their poultry feeds to wholesalers, who resell their products to retailers and the retailers sell to consumers.

The marketing efficiency was also determined to be 13%.  The major constraints faced by the traders include: trades: Higher cost of transportation, bad roads, lack of funds and credit facilities.  Appropriate and useful recommendation was stated and if implemented will improved the poultry feed marketing in Ahiazu Mbaise L.G.A in Imo State.