Costs and Return Analysis in Poultry Egg Production in Lafia Local Government Area (LGA) of Nasarawa State, Nigeria

The study assessed the costs and return of poultry egg enterprises in Lafia Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, Nigeria. Sixty (60) poultry egg producers were randomly selected from the 10 wards in Lafia Local Government Area. Data were collected using structured questionnaire for in-depth interview with selected respondents. Descriptive statistic (such as frequency distribution, percentage and means) and multiple regressions used to analyse the data. Results indicate that most (86.7%) of the respondents were male, within the ages of 31- 40 years. Findings further revealed that majority (83.3%) were married with household sizes of 1-5 inhabitants. Larger proportion (41.7%) of the respondents had 501-1000 birds, with same proportion (41.7%) of the respondents generating up to N 200,000 monthly. The total revenue (TR), Gross Margin (GM), Total variable cost (TVC), and Return on Naira Invested (ROl) were: N1, 575, 362.4 N1, 028, 681.9, N546, 680.5, and N0. 88 respectively. Also, the variables (R2) included in the regression model explained 89% of variation in the revenue generated by poultry egg farmers in the study area. Coefficients for land and drinker/feeder were significant at 1% level of significant, housing was significant at 10% level of significant, while increase in feed and increase in labour were significant at 5% respectively. However, labour had a negative coefficient. Some of the identified constraints were; inadequate improved technology, unavailability of raw material, poor extension/training facilities and managerial problems, high cost and poor availability of feed, high cost of labour, and poor finance . Respondents should be encouraged to form cooperative societies or join the existing ones to be able to access loan to their business and government could also make funds available to assist the layers poultry farmers. Stakeholders should be encouraged to cultivate food crops such as cereals and legumes to make feed stuff available to poultry farmers.