Abstract
This is an investigative study of the information needs of urban poultry producers in Owerri North Local Government Area of Imo State. The Specific Objectives were to describe the socio-economic characteristics of urban poultry farmers in Owerri North Local Government Area, to assess the information needs of urban poultry farmers, to determine the perceived usefulness of the various government incentives/policies that are embarked upon to boost and encourage agricultural production, to determine the production benefits of urban poultry farmers in the study area, to identify the sources of information of urban poultry farmers in the study area and to identify the constraints of urban poultry farmers in the study area. Data were collected using primary and secondary sources. Four communities were purposively selected with twenty-five (25) farmers randomly selected through the snow-balling method from each community making a total of 100 respondents. Descriptive and Inferential statistics (Pearson’s correlation coefficient) were used to analyze data collected. Findings indicates that majority (60.0%) of the farmers were between 35-54 years, 92.0% were married, majority (87.0%) had secondary education and above , while all of the poultry farmers were producing on a small scale. Further findings indicated that major sources of information to farmers were from fellow farmers ( X = 2.72) and Extension agents ( X =2.69). Findings also showed that poultry farmers needed information on the quality/type of feed ( X = 3.31), agricultural credit ( X = 3.22) etc. Also, 98% of the poultry farmers were aware of various government policies while LAPO ( X = 2.33) and ADP ( X = 2.26) were perceived useful by poultry farmers. Result from the hypothesis carried out showed that there is a significant relationship between farmer’s educational level (r = 0.370; p<0.05) and their information needs on urban poultry production. This study showed that farmers lack capital and credit facilities to improve productivity. Therefore, government should subsidize credit facilities for poultry farmers in order to boost and encourage production.
