Competency Level and Training Needs of Poultry (Layers) Farm Attendants in Delta State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigates the competency level of poultry layer farm attendants in Delta state, Nigeria. The specificobjectives of the study are to: describe the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, determine thecompetency level of poultry farmers in various aspects of management and to identify the areas where poultryfarmers need training. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to compose a sample size of 225 respondents.The instruments for primary data collection also included a four point Likert-type scale with values: 1= notcompetent, 2= little competence, 3= competent and 4=very competent. Descriptive and inferential statisticalmethods were used in data analysis. Results were presented using tables and simple percentages. The resultsshowed that the attendants were competent in only three of the twelve tasks examined. The attendants werecompetent in these tasks: care of poultry equipment (mean = 4.48), identification of sick birds for culling (mean= 4.46) and identification of poultry breeds (mean = 4.90). Thus the poultry farm attendants were incompetentgenerally speaking. It was therefore strongly recommended that training workshop on the other nine tasks beorganized to train the poultry farm attendants in Delta State in order to improve their level of competent.Keywords: competency, training needs, attendants, poultry farm, Delta state