ABSTRACT

The study was conducted to examine the choice of logistics and energy use by poultry enterprises in Abia State, Nigeria. Multi-stage random sampling technique was adopted in this study while data were collected with the use of structured questionnaire. Simple descriptive statistics such as means and percentages as well as econometric tools such as the multinomial logistic regression model, farm budgeting analysis tools, ordinary least square regression and Z-test statistics were used for data analysis. The results obtained from the descriptive statistics showed that poultry business in the study area was dominated by males who were still strong, agile, and active. Majority of the respondents combined both private and public means of logistics and energy sources in their poultry business enterprises. The multinomial results showed that gender, age, years of education, number of employees, business scale, income, business location, marital status and energy cost were the factors that affected choice of energy source. Gender, age, years of business experience, years of education, business scale, start-up capital, income, business location, market distance, marital status and logistics/transportation cost were the factors that affected choice of logistics (transport) means in the study area. All the performance indicators confirmed that poultry is a viable and profitable business in the study area. For instance; the average total revenue realized from sales was ₦2,105,424 for the current production season. The Net Income was ₦663,363.7 with a Gross Profit Margin of 67%. This implies that poultry entrepreneurs earned 67% profit on the average for every naira sales before other business expenses are paid. Operating ratio of 33% implies that poultry enterprises are able to minimized operating expenses in their operations as it accounted for only 33% of the total expenditure for the production season. The Return on Investment showed that the entrepreneurs obtained on the average ₦1.46 return on a naira investment. The RRFC showed that the enterprise gained on the average ₦ 1.89 for every naira invested in fixed costs. Rate of return on variable cost also indicated that the enterprise gained on the average ₦1.94 for each naira invested in the variable cost of operation. The OLS results of the factors that affected the profit performance of poultry enterprise showed that gender, age, years of education, distance to market, capital, business location and energy cost were negatively related to performance while number of employees and business scale were positively related to performance. The result of the Z-test indicated that Poultry enterprise that used the private source of energy had more profits (N 212,074.9) than those that used the public energy source (N 157,803.9) and those that used both sources together (N 38,759.23) respectively. On the other hand, the enterprise that used both public and private mode of logistics/transportation together had more profit (N 193, 70.4) than those who used public mode (N186,194.2) and private mode (N117,621.1) respectively. It is also essential to improve the quality of transportation services especially in terms of regularity of arrival and departure times so as to meet customers’ needs. Since transport is one of the various elemental factors in rural development and it is necessary to understand its role in rural development and particularly how it interacts alongside other factors of development, to produce the resulting structure of the rural economy and society. The government and policy makers are therefore advised to give adequate attention to improving power generation and supply especially to the industrial sector.