CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Poultry is the name used to describe the domesticated birds. They produce meat and eggs used as food. The common types of poultry are fowl or chicken, duck, guinea fowl, turkey, and geese. Fowl chicken is the most common type of poultry in Nigeria. It is eaten by people that practice traditional religion, Christians and Muslims. Poultry birds are suitable for scientific studies because of their rapid growth the egg are important in industries for the manufacturing of cosmetic soap and shampoo etc. as well as for producing vaccines. Egg may also be used in baking industries to prepare snacks as egg roll, sausage roll, cake etc. different types of fowl are kept by farmer. They include the: 

1.     Native fowl

2.     Rhade Island Red (RIR)

3.     Plymouth Rock

4.     Harco

5.     White and Brown Leghorn

6.     light Sussex

The native fowl is mainly kept by farmers in the rural areas. The other types are foreign fowl and are reared by modern and big poultry farmers. The chicken kept for the production of meat is called boilers while the one kept for egg production is called layers. The dual purpose chicken produces both meat and egg. The adult male fowl is known as cocks and the adult female fowl as hen. The young one of fowl is called chicks the cock that had been castrated or has its testes remove is known as capon. Those fowls (both hen and cock) reared for the production of hatched egg is called parents stocks.

Poultry dropping are useful as manure to enrich the soil by adding the poultry dropping to the soil allow it to decay in that process it will increase the nutrient if the soils by adding minerals like nitrogen and phosphate. Egg shells are suitable in making fertilizers and livestock feeds. In the earlier time, the keeping of poultry where not being considered or seen as a major occupation, that the birds were kept to obtain some areas of communities, fowl (poultry birds) in the past were use as means of knowing what the time of the day is especially the cock (male fowl) poultry farming stated those days when our local farmers were using the old method to rear the fowls, sheep, goats, pig and other domestic animals the old system was extensive system, proved that the poultry sector was a profitable venture too gradually poultry keeping developed into a commercial enterprise involving thousands of birds large poultry units were used to replace small ones because of the development, while more efficient stains of birds were used to replace small one because of the development, balance feed intensive housing and better poultry equipment came into use, because of all this development employment of people came about. All these industrialized system of keeping poultry birds help to promote the business of poultry birds in Edo State. In order to investigate the problems are of economic importance in poultry farms in Egor Local Government Area of Edo State. Information on production activities, management and problems were collected from 22 poultry farmers in the study area. The data were analyzed using table and frequency distribution from the analysis, the farmers light lighted the problems of low capital, diseases as the most rampant, Newcastle and Gumboro diseases are the most rampant. They also identified the lack of good quality water, and proper marketing outlets. High cost at times security of feed are major problems in the study areas. All these problems can be tackled by provision of cheap credits to the poultry farmers themselves into co-operative by so doing their resources can be pooled together for meaningful development of their farms and poultry industry in general. In order for poultry birds to produce efficiently and effectively there are need to rear them under a good and conducive environment that will be good for the health. We have various system or ways of rearing birds like the extensive, intensive, and semi intensive system whereby can keep birds in the keep liter and the battering cage so that they can be controlled by the farmers.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS

          Poultry products are good source of protein to every individual and a viable avenue to revenue to both the nation, citizen of that country. But unfortunately the marketing of these products. If situation is net rectified, more serious problem might develop in spite of substantial qualitative and qualitative advancements in different sectors of the poultry industry, the industry will continue to face numerous challenges on a global basis some of these challenges are presented here.

1.     Feed cost and continuous efforts to get a better understanding of available alternative feed ingredients. As of right now, feed cost is probably one of the most serious challenges for the industry.

2.     Disease outbreak and implementation of biosecurity programs, although the extent and also type of disease outbreaks can vary in

different parts of the world. In addition, disease of metabolic origin including as cities and skeletal disorder are of importance as well.

3.     Issues surrounding inclusion of antibiotics in poultry feed and also the use of alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters.

4.     Safety of poultry products for human consumption.

5.     Poultry welfare related issues such as banning the use of conventional cages at layer farms.

6.     Issues related to water in term of both quality and quantity.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1.     Does an inadequate material affect the marketing of poultry production?

2.     Does bad road affect the marketing of poultry products?

3.     Does storage problem act negatively on the marketing of poultry products?

4.     Does bad road affect the marketing of poultry product?

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

          To promote and protect all poultry interests related to production, distribution, merchandizing support research in production and marketing of poultry.