DETERMINATION OF RESILIENCE OF BROILERS FARMERS

ABSTRACT: The contributions of the poultry farms to Nigerian  economic development will depend on its resilience to  distortions in the ever changing economic scenario.This study evaluates the resilience status of poultry (broiler) farms in Delta state, Nigeria. Well structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data from randomly selected 200  broiler farms  in Delta central and Delta north agricultural zones. Descriptive statistics, multiple regression and broiler enterprise budget techniques were used to analyze the data collected. The results from the descriptive statistics shows that the broiler farms in this study are dominated by literate (82%) male farmers (64%) within the age bracket of 40-45 years (35.5%). Majority of the farm operators are married (48%). The broiler enterprise budget analysis shows that the resilience threshold value for small scale farms is N 70,000 while the resilience threshold value for large scale poultry farms is N2,000,000. The percentage gap between observed revenue and break even revenue was used as a measure of broiler farms resilience status. The study reveals that the resilience status of the small scale broiler farms is 29% and the resilience status of the large scale farms is 31%. But the average resilience status for the broiler industry is 40%. The result from the study shows that the proportion of small scale resilient broiler farms is 106(58%) and the non resilient farms is 76(42%). The proportion of large scale resilient broiler farms is 13(72%) and the non resilient farms is 5(28%). The results of multiple regression show that finanial variables: retained earnings (2.98**), contingency fund (3.68**), liquidity ratio (5.67**) have a positive and a significant (P<0.05) relationship with the resilience status of broiler farms but and debt equity ratio(-2.89**) has a negative (P<0.05)relationship with the resilience status of the broiler farms. Non financial variables: stability of income(4.96**), social network membership(3.54**), access to basic amenities(3.88**), self motivation(4.18**), adaptive properties(2.590**), inherent properties (2.139**)  have a positive and a significant (P<0.05) relationship with the resilience status of broiler farms.The result of the resilience threshold model shows  that resilience threshold gap has a positive and a significant (P<0.05)relationship with the resilience status of the broiler farms. We recommended that Seminars, workshop and conferences should be organised periodically by the government and non governmental agencies to educate farmers on how to cope with the ever changing environment. The study recommends that Poultry farm operators should acquire skills and financial analysis in order to develop the ability to detect early signals of bankruptcy.