Abstract:
Chicken production is one of the popular poultry activities worldwide. Chicken constitute
the greatest percentage of livestock species reared in rural areas. In Kenya, the poultry
sector contributes 30% of the agricultural contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Despite enhancement programmes such as crossbreeding and the introduction of
indigenous chicken-specific foods, indigenous chicken production has remained low with
some farmers making minimal profits and huge losses. The influence of social and
economic factors on production efficiency or inefficiency has not been empirically
established. The main purpose of this study was to analyze the economic efficiency
among indigenous chicken farmers in Kitui County. The specific objectives were to:
Identify major resources used by farmers in indigenous chicken production, estimate the
production function and determine which of the identified resources significantly
influenced chicken production in the study area; Determine the farmers level of
efficiency in utilizing the identified resources; Com00000pare the relative economic
efficiency between small and large scale indigenous chicken farms in Kitui county;
Identify the major factors limiting indigenous chicken production, farm profit and
propose solutions for the identified challenges . The study was conducted in Kitui
County, Kenya. A descriptive survey design was adopted. Primary data was elicited using
a structured questionnaire administered on 120 indigenous chicken farmers from selected
wards of Kitui County. A stochastic production function was used to estimate the effect
of production cost on the level of indigenous chicken production. To assess resource use
efficiency among indigenous chicken farmers in the study area, the study used a CobbDouglas production function. Statistical package for social sciences version 28 and
Frontier 4.1 software were used in data analysis. The results of the study revealed that
the main resources used by the indigenous chicken farmers were: poultry house, feeds,
feeding traps, water traps, veterinary services and hired labour. The cost of efficiency
levels of the sampled indigenous chicken farms ranged from 0.1067 to 0.3498 with a
mean of 0.70798. Farmers’ education level, experience in indigenous chicken production,
farm size and technical advice from veterinary experts were identified as factors that
influenced levels of observed cost efficiencies among indigenous chicken farmers in the
study area. The production function analysis identified labour, poultry feed and poultry
housing as the resources with greatest influence on poultry production. Their coefficients
were 0.775, 0.619 and 0.571 respectively. Resource use efficiency for large scale farmers
revealed that cost of birds and poultry equipment were underutilized and, therefore,
required a cost increase of 72% and 21.5% respectively for optimum production. Small
scale farmers were found to underutilize vaccines, drugs, chemicals, amount of feed and
cost of equipment necessitating a cost increase of 80.85%, 10%, 65.17% and 52.9 % for
optimum allocation. Price analysis indicated that the average price per bird was Ksh.500.
Farmers with less than 50 birds reported to have attracted better prices at an average price
of Kshs. 530 per bird. The profit function analysis showed that on average farmers
realized a profit of Kshs. 147 per bird. However, the results indicate that farmers keeping
more than 100 birds realized a profit of Kshs 175, higher than farmers keeping birds less
than 50 who earned a profit of Kshs. 130 per bird. Lack of proper chicken housing,
conflict with neighbors, poor chicken husbandry skills, low chicken returns, and theft were all factors that influenced indigenous chicken farming. Newcastle disease (NCD)
was identified as the most common disease condition affecting indigenous chicken
production. Empirical results of the study pointed out that despite some levels of cost
inefficiency identified, the indigenous chicken farmers in the study area have the
potential of increasing the scale of production and become more profitable. The study
recommended that as a matter of policy, extension services should be increased and
farmers educated on importance of cooperative societies. Farmers should be encouraged
to embrace the improved breeds to maximize on profit. Subsidizing feeds and other
production inputs was also pointed out as a step towards expansion of the poultry sector.