COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE PROFITABILITY OF PULLET AND EGG PRODUCTION IN ABIA STATE, NIGERIA

The study provided the comparative assessment of the profitability of pullet and egg production enterprises in Abia state, Nigeria during 2022 production season. Multistage sampling technique was used to select one hundred and sixty poultry farmers (80 pullet producers and 80egg producers). A structured questionnaire was used to obtain data from the farmers. Farm budgeting model and profit function model were used to estimate the profitability of the two enterprises. The result showed that the profitability indices for pullet farmer and egg farmer were 0.30 and 0.36 respectively, indicating that both enterprises were profitable but egg production enterprise was more profitable. The result also showed that household size, the price of labour, the price of feeds, the price of foundation stock, flock size and depreciated farm tools were the significant variables that influenced profit of the egg farmers. On the other hand, the price of output, the age of pullet farmer, household size, price of labour, price of feeds and flock size were the significant variables that influenced the profit of the pullet farmers. It was concluded that both enterprises were profitable and lucrative in the study area but egg enterprise was more profitable given the higher profitability index. The study recommends that farmers should therefore, form cooperative societies so as to enable them have access to productive inputs that will enable them expand their resource base and consequently their scale of operation.