LITERATURE REVIEW

Poultry production is a systematic economic activity, which involves the provision of poultry meat and eggs to feed the every increasing populace.

These economic activities include selection of poultry breed, production or provision of poultry equipment, hatchery operation, adopting disease prevention and control measures, adequate housing, effective marketing and distribution of products.

According to Okorie {1973} who see poultry production as the rearing of domesticated birds, stated that the origin can be traced to one ancestor that is the wild fowl of the jungle of the South East Asia, South and Central India, Burma, Ceylon and Jeva. And of all the farm animals, poultry can yield the quickest return if given favourable conditions. In incubation, day old chicks are produced within three weeks. Poultry are efficient feed converters to meat and eggs in a short period of time. And in terms of nutritive value, poultry eggs ranks second to cow milk egg is the most economically produced animal protein. Poultry meat ranks high above many other domestic animals in respect of protein, due to its very low fat content and also by products are obtained from poultry.

The feathers are used in stuffing pillows and mattress, the droppings contain more nitrogen phosphorus and potassium in appreciable quantity and it helps to improve the soil and nutrient.

Furthermore, Okorie {1973} said that poultry rearing could be established with minimum cost and as a side project and they can feed for themselves on free range without much care, despite those favourable characteristics. Poultry rearing has not attained the expected level especially in Nigeria. Some of their reasons are that some people still regard poultry farming as degrading and poultry keeping is still largely confined t o the range type of domestication.

According to Agbola {1989} poultry is an essentially human food and of economic importance in the traditional life of the people of Edo state for a very long time with an estimated indigenous chickens. This supplied considerable proportion of the animal protein in the diet of people within thus locality. In this region, poultry keeping generally follows traditional lines on subsistence basis with the innovations, which modern scientific endeavours have introduced. Thus the birds under the system are characterized by slow growth rate, low productivity with low feed efficiency ad hatching parasite ad disease infection.

According to Ajayi et al {1989} which sees the word poultry generally as a range of domesticated birds such as chicken, chicks, ducks, turkeys, guinea fowl, pigeon etc. a poultry production has been known in most part of Nigeria for quite a long time and different kinds of domesticated birds can be found wandering about for something to eat and little or no money is spent in maintaining them, sometime, grains of maize or guineas corn are thrown to the birds as food.

He however emphasized that the revolution in poultry rearing method sparred on the encourage by government pioneering efforts in the sixties and seventies has hardly affected the subsistence and small scale poultry rearing in the villages throughout Edo state that large number of people still depend upon backyard or small scale poultry production. The major reason is that the new poultry rearing is essentially an urban phenomenon and financed by urban capital mainly benefiting urban centered producers and urban consumers and generally sited adjacent to the cities and larger towns without taking into consideration the side effect on people who live in adverse malnutrition in the village.

According to Okorie {1978} proper poultry management/housing can be achieved through three main system and they include;

Extensive system

Intensive system

Semi-intensive system.

EXTENSIVE SYSTEM

This is otherwise called traditional system of poultry keeping, under thus system, the birds are allowed roaming freely without restriction thereby being exposed to pasture and sunshine.

As the name denote, this system is the oldest form of poultry keeping in Edo state. The birds are kept to scavenge for grains, pastures, worms as food but they occasionally supplement them with bits of household food and shelter at night. The birds are open to extreme of weather condition. Excessive heat combine with relative humidity are detrimental to the maximum performance of birds in the tropics. Ion other words, practically, none can be controlled. Economic loses may be caused trough predators, thieves and the laying of eggs in the bush. This system is mostly used by the local farmers and it has the advantages of being the cheapest in terms of poultry keeping as the cost of housing and feeding are very low and they are healthy as they have room for exercise and have assess to green vegetables, insects and worms.

Although, it disadvantages are numerous as they are exposed to the danger of pest, hawho, snakes, predators, the risk of being killed by cars etc is there and because of its nature the egg production is relatively low due to its roaming nature.

INTENSIVE SYSTEM

The intensive system is made up of two systems. Deep litter folds system and battery cage system. In this system, birds are permanently kept under check. The major advantage of this is that it requires only a very small piece of land to operate.

The disadvantages are

It has a high cost of housing and easy spread of disease.

The birds tend to develop vice habits such as pecking, egg eating, feather plucking and cannibalism {Akinsanmi 1975}.

SEMI-INTENSIVE SYSTEM

Birds are kept in poultry houses constructed with wire netting. The birds move about within the rungs during the daytime and are able to exercise themselves. At night they are kept in poultry houses, which are raised from the ground perches, water and feeding through are also raised off the ground. The birds are shifted yearly from one rung to another, these processes helps to brake the life cycle of parasites and disease causing pathogens. And this system also combines the advantages and disadvantages of both intensive and extensive system.

PROBLEMS OF POULTRY REARING IN EDO STATE

The main crux in this project is to look into the problems and prospects of poultry rearing in Edo state and Ikpoba Okha in particular. In an attempt to produce enough poultry products, meat and eggs to meet their requirement several problems and constraints have been identified in Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area. The occurrence and influence of these problems rearing poultry is so wide spread and pronounced that it has become one of the most discussed issues of agriculture some of these problems are examined briefly below.

High Capital Investment: High capital investment required by poultry farmers is an incumbent factor, which has contributed to the existence of traditional and small scale poultry rearing in most part of Edo State. To successfully carry out a well organized large-scale poultry industry, huge sum of money is needed, which cannot be provided by the ordinary farmer left with no alternative, they have to result to the subsistence nature of keeping poultry which is very low in eggs and meat production. This problem is further worsened and those people interested in commercial poultry rearing trying to obtain loans from banks have problem. The giving of loans and only well to do individuals with political connection pose as poultry farmers and snatched loans meant for the genuine farmers. The problems of carrying out feasibility studies and providing collaterals security are also a limiting factor.

Inadequate Poultry Processing Plants and Storage Facility: Onuoha (1989) said that the inadequate storage facilities against seasonal product poses problems which eventually become a draw back to the poultry farmer and this often result to wastage of feed and price instability. In view of the absence of this facilities broilers and called birds are rapidly disposed off at give away prices to at least recover the cost of production. It is important to note that commercial poultry production involves time schedule. This is especially so when the market demand is not in favour of production of supply. Poultry processing plant with storage facility is essential to avoid waste, spoiling deterioration and overall effect of supply shortage of poultry products.

Inadequate Veterinary Services: The most acute problem facing poultry farming is shortage of veterinary drugs, vaccine and equipment, veterinary service provides the backbone to a livestock enterprise. Beside, the few government veterinary clinics that are relatively not functional veterinary clinics especially in the hinterlands or rural areas, the results is that farmers are constantly battling with protracted disease outbreak with high mortality rate which would have been nipped in the bud with regular veterinary and diagnose check up.

Quality Feed: According to Akinsani (1979) good nutrition involves providing food at the right time not only in the right quantity but also in quality with respect to carbohydrates, fats, and oils, proteins, minerals, and especially vitamin. There has not been that regularization of standards and strict monitoring of quality of feed by standard organisation of Nigeria. Animal suffering from malnutrition easily succumb to the attack of disease organism, while well-fed animals will resist attack more successfully.

Illiteracy and Maintenance of Record: Most of our farmers either as a result of illiteracy or otherwise are unable to keep records, the result is that most extension officers are unable to help them out of their problem due to lack of information, maintenance of records have a long way to help farmers determine the progress and retrogressing nature of the farm. Beside it helps in making future projections, planning and programming or determining the trends in the poultry production.

PROSPECT OF POULTRY PRODUCTION IN EDO STATE

The prospect of poultry production in Edo State is high and bright. The future is bright and the prospect for rapid growth of poultry production in Edo State has increase inspite of problems of feed, supply of day old chicks, problem of disease control etc. there is the possibility of increasing production of all the resources are now geared towards the one row task of building a viable poultry industry for Edo State to contribute immensely to exceed average world production within this decade, some of the following projections are enumerated.

Quick Profit/Capital Output: One of the reasons why poultry production in Edo state has become one of the most important branches of agriculture is that it is the available sources of human protein. Chickens are very easy to manage and the return on investment are quicker to realizable in addition, the peasant farmers or the hobbyist can make a humble start with only few heads of chickens without any prejudice to further expansion as experience is gained and funds for investment become available.

Availability of Local Feed Ingredients: Feeding constitute some 60-65% of the total cost in the production of table eggs and poultry meant. The availability of large range of local ingredient make it possible for balance feed to be produced at reasonable cost. At present, about 92-95% of the ingredients used in the various poultry nations are produced in the country, example are corn, sorghum. These may be product in any quantity and at a reasonable price in the state.

Role of Government in Poultry Production: Government plays a major role in the current poultry industry development in Edo State. Government role has been largely to encourage private entrepreneurship through training, incentives supply of subsidized input (day chick, point of lay birds, equipments etc) free duty on imported guaranteed credit scheme and subsidized veterinary services. Government has also set up hatcheries, feed mills, demonstration farms and commercial egg and broiler production through parastatals.

Recently there has been a sustained government backed campaign to increase poultry production at both commercial and subsistence level.

The Role of Researchers: Research findings have contributed immensely in alleviating the problem encountered in trying to eradicate some poultry disease. The principal are of poultry disease where researcher has played their role and still playing major roles are diagnosis of disease. In this regard, researchers have done remarkable were the very destructive and economically important ones can now be diagnosed with remarkable accuracies. Accurate diagnosis helps in the control of disease.

Another area where the researcher has played a significant is through the provision of vaccine and drugs, affective vaccine have been developed to minimize animals against some of the most important disease such as new castle disease, fowl cholera, fowl pox, coceidiosis, gumboro disease and birdsflu disease, this largely as a result of the result of the past intensive research activities of veterinary research activities institutes vom in plateau state, and other drug manufacturing companies.