An investigation into the challenges facing returns on investment in the small scale poultry sector: a survey of poultry farmers in Tetu location, Nyeri county.

Abstract

Poultry production is one of the most important economic activity to the small scale fanners in Kenya. However, numerous constraints have resulted in low production of poultry thus failing to meet the increasing demand of poultry products. This study seeks to investigate the challenges that affect the returns of the small scale poultry sector within Tetu Location, in Nyeri County. The study identified four objectives namely: To examine the effects of marketing on the returns of the poultry sector, to establish the effects of the costs of inputs on the returns of the poultry sector, to I Investigate th.e effec. ts of disease, pests, and predators on the returns of the poultry farming and finally, to assess the effect of poultry management skills on the returns on poultry sector. To achieve the objectives the study will adopt the descriptive survey design. The target population will consist of 812 poultry farmers from Tetu location. The study will use simple stratified sampling technique to draw a representative sample of 81 respondents from the population of 812 poultr. fanners in Tetu location. The five sub-locations making up the Tetu location will be used t" proportionately allocate the sample sizes. The sub-locations included in the study will be Ichagachiru, ~igogo-ini, gatumbiro, karaihu, kirurumi. The data from the respondents in the five sub-locations in Tetu will be collected through the use of structured and unstructured questionnaire The data collected will be analyzed with SPSS to generate mean, mode and frequency. A regression modelwill be formed to determine whether marketing, cost of inputs, pests, diseases and predators, management skills, predict the returns of the small scale poultry sector. Among the expected results include that' cost of inputs are prohibitive and lowers the returns of poultry production and the marketing system of the poultry products is inefficient.