DETERMINANTS OF WEALTH STATUS OF POULTRY ENTREPRENEURS IN ABA AGRICULTURAL ZONE OF ABIA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study dwelt on determinants of wealth status of poultry entrepreneurs in Aba agricultural zone of Abia State, Nigeria. Multi-stage random sampling method was used for the study. Data were collected from a randomly sampled 60 poultry entrepreneurs using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and OLS regression model were used to analyze the data. The findings of the study showed that 50% of poultry entrepreneurs were within the age bracket of 36-45 years with mean age of 46.13. Results of the respondents’ marital status showed that 63.3% of entrepreneurs were married; 73.3% had secondary education and 66.7% of the respondent’s belonged to cooperative society. The results of the ordinary least square (OLS) showed that age, stock size and breeding stock were negatively related to the wealth status of the poultry entrepreneur at P≤0.05% significance level, implying that as age of the respondents increased, wealth status of the poultry operators decreased. Marital status and amount of credit received positively influenced wealth status of poultry enterprise at P≤0.01%. Also, household income was positively related to wealth status and significant at P≤0.1% level. The R² value of 0.819 implied that wealth status of the respondents was explained by all the explanatory variables by about 82%. It was concluded that all the explanatory factors had positive influence on wealth status of the respondents except the age of the entrepreneurs that showed negative influence. The study recommended that government should assist by enacting policies that would compel formal financial institutions to give adequate credit to poultry farm owners’ increase their stock size. Investors who are married should stock improved breeds of poultry to enhance their income, savings and wealth.