Determinants of training needs of youths in broiler chicken production in Osun state, Nigeria and implications for extension workers

This study identified the factors influencing the training needs of youth in broiler chicken production and drew implications for extension workers in Osun State, Nigeria. Data were collected from 221 youth farmers through a purposive sampling procedure and a snowball sampling technique. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation, regression and factor analytical techniques. Findings reveal that 43.4% of the respondents were between the ages of 26 and 30 years, 26.7% were between the ages of 31 and 35 years, 19.0% were above 36 years of age while 10.9% of the respondents were less than 25 years of age. Majority (60.2%) of the respondents were males while others 39.8% were females. In addition, 40.7% of the respondents had at least three years of broiler chicken production experience, 34.8% had four to six years of experience, 17.6% had seven to nine years of experience and the remaining 6.8% had more than 10 years of broiler chicken production experience. In addition, vast Majority 86.0% of the respondents raise below 200 birds at the time of this research, 8.1% raise between 201 and 300 birds, 5.0% raised above 401 birds while the remaining 0.9% of the respondents raised between 301 and 400 birds. Furthermore, majority (60.2%) of the respondents have not received any training in poultry farming in the past one year while 39.8% of respondents received training between two to five times in the past one year. In addition, respondents were highly in need of training in five standard practices involved in broiler chicken production, which are: growing management / daily routine management, poultry housing, marketing of birds, litter management and equipment. Two groups of factors; income factors (33.2%) and training related factors (21.0%) that were isolated contributed 54.2% to the training needs of youth in broiler chicken production in Osun State, Nigeria.