Technical assessment of rural development of the poultry meat sector in Ogun State, South Western Nigeria: A Geographic Information System (GIS) approach

T Omodele, I A Okere¹ and C E Deinne²

Institute of Agricultural Research and Training, Land and Water Resources Management Programme, Obafemi Awolowo University,
P.M.B. 5029, Moor Plantation, Ibadan. Nigeria.
modeltaiwo@yahoo.com
¹Institute of Agricultural Research and Training, Livestock Improvement Programme, Obafemi Awolowo University,
Moor Plantation, Ibadan. Nigeria.
²Geography Department, University of Ibadan, Ibadan. Nigeria.

Abstract

In Nigeria, there are two separate poultry production systems: commercial and rural. This study aimed to create a spatial dataset of poultry farms in Ogun State and locally assess the poultry meat production capacity of the farms through a location-based assessment using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology.

The poultry system in Ogun State is essentially characterized by small to large-scale production. Applying the FAO categories of poultry farm production: 17.2% of Household free-range (HHFR) farms (<200 birds) produced at 0.1%, 69.9% of Backyard commercial (BYC) farms (200-4,999) produced at 21.9%, 8.7% of Medium-scale commercial (MSC) farms (5,000-19,999) produced at 15.1% and 4.2% of Large-scale commercial (LSC) farms (with ≥20,000 birds) produced at 62.9%. GIS analysis also showed production of poultry meat type as: Broilers 2.2%, Breeders 4.1%, Layers 89.7% and Cockerels 4%. The application of GIS to the local production of poultry revealed that 13.9% of farms in Ogun State are not producing while Ewekoro Local Government Area has the highest number of non-producing farms.

Key words: ADP, GPS, LGA, market, population, poultry meat types

Introduction

The production of food has not increased at the rate that can meet the increasing population in Nigeria. While food production increases at the rate of 2.5%, food demand increases at a rate of more than 3.5% due to high rate of population growth of 2.83% (CBN 2004). The apparent disparity between the rate of food production and demand for food in Nigeria has led to increasing resort to food importation and high rates of increase in food prices. Consequently, several conferences and world Food summits on human nutrition have brought to the fore deliberations on issue of eradicating poverty and hunger.

The Agricultural sector in Nigeria has remained the largest contributor to the Gross Domestic Product of the nation’s economy. As a result, the livestock sector plays a crucial role in rural economy and livelihood. The sector forms an important livelihood activity for most of the farmers, supporting agriculture in the form of critical inputs, contributing to the health and nutrition of the household, supplementing incomes, offering employment opportunities, and serving as a store of wealth in times of need. The prolificacy of livestock which include; goat, pig and poultry are the influencing factors for rearing them. The returns are quick; losses, if any, are recovered soon and the poor can afford them. Income from livestock production contributes a significant percentage of the total income of rural farm households engaged in agricultural production. The types of poultry that are of commercial or economic importance given the trade in poultry, however, are chickens, guinea fowls and turkeys, amongst chickens predominate. Consequently, poultry farming is generically referred to as chicken farming in Nigeria because it provides meat for delicacies and no tribe or religion in Nigeria forbids chicken meat. Asides, from the chicken being used as food, poultry farming is equally profitable, when compared to other livestock, poultry has by far the quickest and highest rate of turnover. Chickens comprise: Broilers, Breeders, Layers and Cockerels.

The importance of poultry to the national economy and the development of the rural sector of the industry cannot be overemphasized, as it has become popular industry for the small holders that have great contribution to the economy of the country. The importance of the poultry sub-sector is chiefly in the provision of meat and eggs as well as the provision of employment either directly or indirectly and the contribution to the revenue (Gross Domestic Product) of the country. The poultry sub-sector of the economy in Nigeria remains chiefly primitive. This is because government, at all levels, has neglected it for a long time. The poultry industry in Nigeria currently has about 10% of the population, and is responsible for less than 15 to 18% employment opportunities, due to the fact that the industry is mainly subsistent (Afolami et al 2011).

The rural development of poultry system in Ogun State is essentially characterized by small to large-scale production, extensive or semi-intensive rearing (in cages or on deep litter) of improved breeds of domestic poultry, capital and labour-intensive with high input and high output. Omodele and Okere (2014) reported that the highest production is in Ogun State in the South-west geopolitical zone of Nigeria. This highest production of poultry is not only as a result of population but also due to availability of market in the neighbouring States and other zones.

Challenges of food insecurity and hunger worldwide and in developing countries like Nigeria in particular have continued to receive attention from experts and governments (Emaikwu et al 2011, FAO2003). For developing countries, poultry contributes just about 15%, of total animal protein intake, with approximately 1.3 kg of poultry products consumed per head annum (NLDC, 2000). The demand and supply gap for animal protein intake is so high. The FAO recommends that the minimum intake of protein by an average person should be 65grams (g) per day; of this, 36g (i.e. 40%) should come from animal sources. Nigeria is presently unable to meet this requirement. The animal protein consumption in Nigeria is less than 8g per person per day, which is far below the FAO minimum recommendation (Niang and Jubrin 2001).

FAO has divided the production system into 4 categories based primarily on scale of production and level of bio-security: sector 1: industrial integrated system with high bio-security systems; sector 2: commercial poultry production system with moderate to high bio-security; sector 3: commercial poultry production system with low to minimal bio-security; and sector 4: village or backyard production system with minimal bio-security (Adene and Oguntade 2006).

At a grassroot level, Geographic Information System (GIS) offers poultry farmers various opportunities to increase production, reduce input costs, and manage the resources in their care more efficiently. GIS technology in the country had promised a sweet relief to the procedure of decision-making process. For sustained agricultural development there is need for a timely, reliable, and sustained GIS data management process. GIS applications at the farm stage to the consumer stage are meant to provide farmers, both experienced and inexperienced, with some ideas for implementation in poultry production. Geo-information has not only become a key strategic resource for poultry production, it has also become a critical success factor in the process of rural development of the poultry sector, being redefined in terms of the capacity to generate, acquire, analyze, disseminate and utilize information for effective decision making in the poultry meat industry.

Materials and Methods

Study area

Ogun State was created out of the former Western state of Nigeria on 3rd February 1976 with Abeokuta as the capital. Abeokuta means 'under the stone'. Also known as the 'gateway state' because of its strategic position as the link by road, rail, air and sea to the rest of the country, its towns of importance Shagamu, Ijebu Ode and Ilaro served as markets during the mining industry's better times and down to these days. Ogun state lies within latitudes 6 ^o17’57.9”N and 7^o58’39.8”N and longitudes 2^o38’57.1”E and 4^o36’22.9”E. Ogun state (Figure 1) comprises of varying dialects of the Yoruba language; the Egbas, the Egbados, the Ijebus, the Remos. Ogun deals in traditional arts, carving, sculpture, smithery, poultry keeping amongst others. The State covers a landmass of 16,981sqkm [approximately 1.9% of the area of Nigeria] and has a total population of 3,751,140 as shown in Table 1. It shares an international boundary with the Republic of Benin to the West and interstate boundaries with Oyo State to the North, Lagos and the Atlantic to the South and Ondo State to the East.

Figure 1. Study area: Local Government Areas of Ogun State.

Location-based Poultry Farm Survey

To create a spatial dataset of poultry farms in Ogun State, an intensive survey was carried out across all the 20 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in 2010 for the purpose of determining the locations of all the farms contributing to the development of the poultry sector in the State. The identification of positions of the poultry farms in Ogun State required the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) in order to assess their impacts in poultry production and to evaluate their contributions toward the development of the sector in their respective rural communities (Figure 2). The accuracy maintained at this level of farm survey determines the production estimate for the study area. To obtain information on the characteristics of the sampled farms, the spatial data collected was accompanied by the administration of a set of questionnaire which was conducted through an interview session by the Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) Officers.

Figure 2. Spatial distribution of poultry farms in Ogun State LGAs.

Spatial and attribute data integration

Integrating the logically structured spatial and attribute data of the surveyed poultry farms using ArcGIS 10.1® capabilities, the obtained data of the poultry farms within the study area were logically queried and analyzed. The geographical positions of the poultry farms with respect to their Local Government Areas were determined for an easy determination of the poultry meat production capabilities of each LGA in Ogun State as displayed in Table 2. The GIS mapping procedure is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. GIS mapping procedure for poultry meat production.

GIS analysis of production by poultry farms

For this study, queries were generated for the retrieval of information and provision of answers to likely questions that would be required. The major queries performed were to determine the percentage of poultry farms that are major contributors to the rural development of poultry industry in the Local Government Areas of Ogun State. Different production classes according to FAO were applied for the display of variation in poultry meat production. However, because farm size is not necessarily directly related to level of bio-security, four categories were proposed for the benefit of this assessment, namely Large-scale commercial (LSC) farm (with ≥20,000 birds), Medium-scale commercial (MSC) farm (5,000-19,999), Backyard commercial (BYC) farm (200-4,999) and Household free-range (HHFR) farm (<200 birds) as reported by Maina (2008).

Results and Discussion

Analysis of poultry type and production

Analysing Table 2, the percentage production of poultry meat types in Nigeria is shown in Figure 4. There it was discovered that the most preferred poultry meat type in Ogun State is the Layer which is due to its quick economic returns in terms of the eggs and meat.

Figure 4. Percentage production of poultry meat in Ogun State.

In line with the national analysis of Omodele and Okere (2014); the major production of Layers is in the highest production class (<100,000 birds) in Nigeria. The Ogun State Local Government Areas analysis showed Layers production as: 89.7%, Breeders (4.1%), Cockerels (4%) and Broilers (2.2%). The Breeders production emerged the second highest in Ogun State contrary to the national analysis of Omodele and Okere (2014) in which Broilers production was the second highest in Nigeria. The analysis showed that Broilers production is the lowest in Ogun State and there existed an equal interest in Breeders and cockerels production in the State. These are summarized in Figure 5.

Figure 5. Comparison of percentage production of poultry meat type in Ogun State and Nigeria.

 In figures 6 and 7, application of production classes for the display of variations in production across all the LGAs show that <10,000 birds has 15% of LGAs, 10,000 – 50,000 birds (30% of LGAs), 50,000 - 200,000 birds (35% of LGAs), 200,000 – 500,000 birds (15% of LGAs) and >500,000 birds (5% of LGAs). According to Figure 6, Ado Odo/Ota Local Government Area is the LGA with the highest poultry meat production in the State because Ado Odo/Ota has the highest number of productive farms (Figure 8) but with the exclusion of Ewekoro where production and farms proportion do not positively correlate.

Figure 6. Poultry production status of LGAs in Ogu	Figure 7. Percentage of LGAs in Ogun State in the applied production classes.

Figure 8. Poultry farms concentration in Ogun State.

Stakeholders’ impact assessment

Studies have shown that the high number or proportion of poultry farms in an area does not guarantee a high production in such a locality. This is buttressed in Figures 9 and 10 as the descending order pattern of production in Figure 9 is not depicted by poultry farms proportion order of Figure 10. This assessment technique helps in revealing areas where the decision makers are expected to use their rescue tools in savaging the industry and to look into the challenges facing various farmers at their respective locations. For example, Ewekoro LGA which has the second highest number of farms after Ado Odo/Ota LGA in the State (Figure 10) still has a very low production size (Figure 9) as a result of 84.1% of the farms which are not producing followed by Abeokuta-North 4.4% and Ado Odo/Ota 2.9% (Figure 11). It is therefore conspicuous that there is a major collapse of the poultry industry in Ewekoro. Odogbolu LGA which has a very low number of farms eventually emerged as the second highest producer of poultry meat in Ogun State.

Figure 9. Poultry meat production by LGAs in Ogun State (descending order)	Figure 10. Number of poultry farms per LGA in Ogun State

Population impact assessment

Geographical representation of Table 1 gives the distribution overview of population across Ogun State (Figure 12). The population distribution across the LGAs predetermines the influence of population on production. Generally, population attracts increase in consumption of poultry products (meat and eggs) and it is known that high population connotes more of commercial activities as agricultural products have ready markets. Farmers are also attracted into more production with the availability of access to market. According to Figure 12, Ado Odo/Ota and Ifo LGAs have the highest population in the State. Without doubts, this is one of the reasons why poultry meat production is very high in Ado Odo/Ota, the LGA is also an access route through its major road from the highly populated city of Lagos to Abeokuta which is the capital of Ogun State. Likewise all other LGAs, Lagos State offers an available market for poultry products produced in Ogun State.

Figure 11. Chart of non-producing farms per LGAs in Ogun State	Figure 12. Population distribution in Ogun State. Adapted from National Population Commission, Nigeria (2010).

FAO categorization of poultry farms

The use of FAO categories and Maina (2008) classes of poultry farms production: Household free-range (<200 birds), Backyard commercial (200-4,999), Medium-scale commercial (5,000-19,999), Large-scale commercial farm (with ≥20,000 birds) made the farm level assessment achievable. Table 3 shows the applied classes of production in Ogun State according to FAO categories.

 As displayed by Figure 13 and expressed in Figure 14, the majority of the farms in Ogun State are in the Backyard commercial and followed by the Household free-range FAO category. Since it is not just the quantity of farms that counts in the poultry industry but their production strength, therefore rural development assessment of the poultry meat sector analyzes the relational ratio of poultry farms to their corresponding output which is more appreciated in terms of the increased number of poultry birds. As shown in Table 3, Figure 14 also showed that despite the lowest number of farms, the highest production is still from the Large-scale commercial FAO category. Although, the Household free-range class has the second highest number of farms, its production is absolutely insignificant.

Figure 13. Poultry farms production categories across LGAs in Ogun State.	Figure 14. Percentage of farms and poultry meat production in Ogun State (FAO categorization).

Poultry farms assessment by LGA

For the purpose of this assessment, Local Government Area justification of poultry farms performance was applied. The farms in each Local Government Area have been classified based on the FAO categories and the percentage of each category defined. Since the agricultural sector in each LGA is monitored by the Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) Officers in each area, this analysis will help the decision makers in viewing the overall performance of their farms with respect to their production status as shown in Figures 15 and 16. As viewed in Figure 15, majority of the farms in Ogun State are in the Backyard commercial category.

Figure 15. LGA Percentage of farms in the FAO categories.	Figure 16. LGA Percentage Production of farms in the FAO categories.

Figures 17 – 36 is in the order of production status of each LGA as shown in the LGA order of Figure 9. As shown, it is reconfirmed that most of the poultry farms in the LGAs are in the Backyard commercial (BYC) FAO category except in Ijebu North-East (Figure 25) where the Medium-scale commercial (MSC) category dominates with Backyard commercial and Large-scale commercial farms sharing equal percentage. In most LGAs, Large-scale commercial farms are the lowest but still emerged the highest producers due to their production capacities except in Ipokia (Figure 27), Abeokuta North, Ewekoro, Egbado/Yewa North, Ijebu North, Ogun Waterside, Abeokuta South, Ijebu East and Imeko-Afon (Figures 29-36) where there is no existence of Large-scale commercial farms which was responsible for their low production. In Remo-North LGA (Figure 28), there existed a Large-scale commercial farm but this was not enough to place the LGA in the high production category. In the last four LGAs (Figures 33-36), there was sole production in the Backyard commercial (BYC) category by Ogun Waterside, Abeokuta South and Imeko-Afon except Ijebu East which emerged in the Medium-scale commercial (MSC) category.

Figure 17. Ado Odo/Ota LGA Production chart	Figure 18. Odogbolu LGA Production chart	Figure 19. Ikenne LGA Production chart

Figure 20. Obafemi Owode LGA Production chart	Figure 21. Shagamu LGA Production chart	Figure 22. Ifo LGA Production chart

Figure 23. Odeda LGA Production chart	Figure 24. Ijebu-Ode LGA Production chart	Figure 25. Iebu North-East LGA Production chart

Figure 26. Egbado/Yewa South LGA Production chart	Figure 27. Ipokia LGA Production chart	Figure 28. Remo-North LGA production chart

Figure 29. Abeokuta North LGA Production chart	Figure 30. Ewekoro LGA Production chart	Figure 31. Egbado/Yewa North LGA Production chart

Figure 32. Ijebu North LGA Production chart	Figure 33. Ogun Waterside LGA Production chart	Figure 34. Abeokuta South LGA Production chart

Figure 35. Ijebu East LGA Production chart	Figure 36. Imeko-Afon LGA Production chart

Conclusion

• Most poultry farm operations in Ogun State are in the Backyard commercial category. A high number or proportion of poultry farms in an area does not guarantee a high production in that locality. The major production of Layers is due to its dietary and economic importance through the derivation of meat and eggs. An appreciable number of Large scale commercial farms is responsible for the high production of poultry meat in Ogun State. The GIS approach to the study of poultry development has assisted in assessing the rural development of the sector and has provided a database of the Local Government Areas where developmental strategies are essential in poultry meat production in Ogun State.

References

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Omodele T and Okere I A 2014: GIS application in poultry production: identification of layers as the major commercial product of the poultry sector in Nigeria. Livestock Research for Rural Development, Volume 26, Article #097 Retrieved May 1, 2014, from http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd26/5/omod26097.html.

Received 17 April 2014; Accepted 27 May 2014; Published 1 July 2014

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