Abstract
This study investigated the contribution of small scale poultry farming to poverty reduction in Oyun and Offa local
government of Kwara State. 194 Small scale poultry farmers were selected using a two-stage random technique. Descriptive statistical technique and Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) were used to analyze the data. The results revealed that the majority (62.4%) of the respondents were married, more than half (59.3%) were male with the mean age of 35.5years. The average period of poultry keeping experience was 7 years. The effect of income on poverty reduction revealed that it has highly contributed to the purchase of food stuff for the family, payment of their children’s school fees, and payment of house rent of 79.4%, 27.8%, and 42.8% of the respondents respectively. Product Moment Correlation revealed that only the level of education (r= 0.182*, p= 0.011) of the farmers showed a significant relationship with the extent to which egg and meat contributed to respondents’ income. The result showed a significant relationship between the income and selected effect of income made (purchase of foodstuff for the family (r=0.149*, p=0.038) the payment of children school fees (r= 0.204**, p= 0.004), payment of rents (r= 0.159*, p= 0.027) and purchase of furniture (r= 0.161*, p= 0.025) in reducing the farmers’ poverty. The study thus concludes that savings made from small scale poultry farming were not enough to meet the needs of farmers, the effect of income on their poverty reduction, the purchase of food stuff for the family, the payment of their children’s school fees and payment of house rent. The study recommends among others, the need for farmers to increase their flock sizes to obtain income and Government should help to subsidize and make readily available the vaccines, drugs, feeds and poultry equipment to reduce cost of production.
