Empirical Analysis of Egg Production Functions: A Case Study of Ikot Ekpene and Uyo Metropolis of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study carried out an empirical analysis of egg production functions, a case Study of Ikot Ekpene and Uyo Metropolis of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Specifically, this study was carried out to estimate the egg production functions in the study area, determine the resource use efficiency of egg producers in the study area and to make recommendations based on the findings. Data for this study were obtained from primary source collected from thirty – seven (37) purposively selected poultry farmers using personal observations and interview method while the secondary data were obtained from farm records kept by the farmers. Regression analysis was carried out to show the relationship between egg lay and several input explanatory variables namely; feed intake, mortality rate, culling rate, labour and floor space. Resource use efficiency analysis was used to determine the rationality of the firms in their use of resources. The result showed that the effect of feed intake and labour on egg lay was significant at 0.01% level, Floor space was also significant at 0.01. Further analysis showed that sum of elasticities for feed, labour and floor (EP) is1.59 indicating an increasing return to scale scenario, implying that a 1% increase in the variables; feed, labour, and floor space will lead to a 1.59% increase in egg lay. Of all the four egg production function estimated in this study, it became clear that the exponential function was found to be the lead equation since four out of the five variables employed in this study were significant where as other forms had less numbers of significant variables. The analysis with respect to resource use showed that feed, labour and floor space were over utilized during the period of egg lay.