A study of poultry farms in Enugu State Nigeria and mapping

Vol. 13(38), pp. 1970-1979, 20 September, 2018

DOI: 10.5897/AJAR2016.11755

Article Number: 7E6CA5158565

ISSN: 1991–637X

Author(s) retain the copyright of this article

http://www.academicjournals.org/AJAR

African Journal of Agricultural

Research

Full Length Research Paper

A study of poultry farms in Enugu State Nigeria and

mapping of their mechanization needs using Global

Positioning System (GPS) and Geographical

Information System (GIS)

Ozoemena A. Ani*, B. B. Uzoejinwa, N. K. Alameze and E. U. Ezugwu

Department of Agricultural and Bioresources Engineering, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria.

Received 26 September, 2016; Accepted 26 April, 2017

Poultry has been identified by the World Bank funded Commercial Agricultural Development Program

(CADP) as a value chain in the agricultural sector of Enugu State and thus has the potential for

commercial agriculture. This work has investigated poultry farms in three production cluster areas in

Enugu State namely: Emene (in Enugu East) located on 6.523815°N, 7.4151535°E and 1236 ft; Ngwo (in

Enugu North/Udi) located on 6.523815°N, 7.57528°E and 572 ft and Nsukka located on 6.234754°N,

7.326473°E and 3422 ft. The study identified the position of each farm using Global Positioning System

(GPS) hand held device; their specific mechanization needs and challenges limiting the performances

of the farms using structured questionnaire, oral interviews and on–the-spot assessments. Position and

mechanization data were represented in a map using ArcGIS version 10.3. The farms visited produce

eggs, broilers or layers or combinations of them, and the sizes of the farms range from unit of

thousands to tens of thousands of birds; these generally are commercial poultry farms but of low or

medium scale levels. The survey reveals that most of the poultry farms are having the following

mechanization needs: Power supply, egg handling, road network, waste handling, feed mill, pelleting

machine, battery cage, automatic drinker, water pump, and automatic feeder; however the need

depends on the level of production. Other problems or challenges facing the farms visited as observed

during the survey are classified as management problems quantified as 60%, technical problems 30%

and the problem of cost 10%. Result of this work is a step further in developing and building up the

much talked about commodity-specific data base system for agribusiness decision support and

development in the local area.

Key words: Mapping, poultry farms, mechanization needs, Global Positioning System (GPS), Geographical

Information System (GIS).

INTRODUCTION

Poultry production is one of the major agricultural

production activities going on in Enugu State of Nigeria.

Poultry alongside with fruit trees (citrus, mango, guava,

pineapple and cashew) and maize has been identified by

the World Bank funded Commercial Agricultural

Development Program as a value chain in the agricultural

sector of Enugu State and thus has the potential for

commercial agriculture (CADP-AB3498, 2009). Both rural

and urban dwellers are involved at varying levels. In

urban or semi-urban areas, people operate poultry

production systems at either subsistent, usually as a part

time job or at commercial level. The level of production

determines the land space, scale, technological

application and other input resources. According to

Adene (2010), commercial poultry production system is

industrial in nature, large scale, dense and involves

uniform stocks of modern poultry hybrids. It is capital and

labour intensive as well as inputs and technology

demanding. On the other hand, the rural poultry is by

convention a subsistence system which comprises stocks

of non-standard breeds or mixed strain, types and ages.

It is generally of small scale, associated with household

or grass root tenure and little or no veterinary inputs. The

rural poultry sector is therefore in its original sense, a

village-based, household or individual holding, an

occupation which has however been extended to non–

village settings in semi-urban localities, mainly by the

middle class dwellers. However, between these two

distinct systems, intermediate grades have evolved over

time, in response to the national agro economy and

consumer demands. This constitute what is now globally

regarded as “family poultry” comprised of the rural or

indigenous poultry types in some cases or a mixture of

both indigenous and exotic hybrids or even totally exotic

breeds. Available information shows that the scale of

operation can range from stocks of a few units or a few

dozens of a variety of poultry birds in the household

poultry to tens or hundreds of thousands of chickens in

the grades of commercial poultry (Adene, 2009).

Considering the contribution of poultry business to the

economy of the state and the country at large, it is

important to develop a good information network and

data base system for decision support for poultry and

allied business ventures. Also it is necessary to pursue

full mechanization of the system in order to serve the

growing population for both food and raw material for

industries. Agricultural mechanization is the application of

mechanical technology and increased power to

agriculture, largely as a means to enhance the

productivity of human labour and often to achieve results

well beyond the capacity of human labour (UNIDO-FAO

2008). In Africa and specifically in Nigeria, record keeping

and information management and retrieval systems are

still generally unsatisfactory. Researchers, investors,

government and farmers usually find it difficult to find or

have access to needed information or data which may be

necessary in different aspects of their specific interests.

This research therefore seeks to contribute to solving this

problem; and precisely in the aspect of poultry business

in Enugu State by providing a map showing location of

Ani et al. 1971

farms and their mechanization needs. The specific

objectives include to identify the existing locations of

some selected poultry farms in Enugu State using GPS,

determine the mechanization needs and other challenges

of these poultry farms through on-sight investigation, oral

interviews and structured questionnaire and to represent

the farms and their mechanization needs in a map using

GIS software.

GIS and GPS as powerful information and

management tools

Geographical Information System (GIS) is a high

technological mapping system that integrates hardware,

software and data for capturing, managing, analyzing and

displaying all forms of geographically referenced

information. GIS makes it possible to view, understand,

question, interpret and visualize data in many ways that

reveal relationships, patterns and trends in the form of

maps, globes, reports and charts (ESRI, 2010). By using

GIS, scientists can research changes in the environment;

engineers can design road systems; electrical companies

can manage their complex networks of power lines;

government can track the uses of land; fire and police

departments can plan emergency routes. Many private

businesses have begun to use a GIS to plan and improve

their services.

For agricultural purposes, GIS can be used to produce

and read maps. Its major advantage is that it permits

identifying spatial relationships between specific different

map features. It can create maps in different scales,

projections and colors. But it is not just a map making

tool. It is primarily an analytical tool that provides new

ways of looking at, linking and analyzing data by

projecting tabular data into maps and integrating data

from different, diverse sources. It accomplishes these by

allowing creation of a set of maps, each with different

theme such as soils, rainfall, temperature, relief, water

sources, etc. From its early beginnings, GIS has been an

integrating technology both from the point of view of its

development as well as its use. This is because, once

geographic information of any kind is translated into the

digital form in a GIS, it becomes easy to copy, edit,

analyze, manipulate and transmit (Maguire et. al., 1990).

Some potential agricultural applications where GIS can

lead to better management decision are: Precision

farming, land use planning, watershed management, pest

and disease management, irrigation management,

resources inventory and mapping, crop area assessment

and yield forecasting, biodiversity assessment, genetic

resources management, etc. (Aronoff, 2010). Information

*Corresponding author. E-mail: ozoemena.ani@unn.edu.ng, benjamin.uzoejinwa@unn.edu.ng.

Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution

License 4.0 International License

1972 Afr. J. Agric. Res.

Figure 1. Map of Enugu state showing the local governments.

and data on poultry business can be collated and/or

accessed on the internet and used to create intelligent

maps for better farm business practices (Xie and Wang,

2007). Khaleda and Murayama (2013) employed GIS in

the delineation of the suitability of poultry sites in Gazipur,

Bangladesh. Hassanein et al. (2012) applied GIS as a

decision support system in planning the expansion of

poultry farms in Egypt. Omodele et al. (2014) employed

GIS in analysing the spatial distribution of poultry farms in

Delta State.

On the other hand, GPS is applied in agriculture for

guidance of equipment such as sprayers, fertilizer

applicators and tillage implements to reduce excess

information technology has accelerated our ability to

acquire large volumes of spatial data. It is widely

acknowledged that the key technologies facilitating the

modern precision agriculture are yield monitor, remote

and proximal sensing, GPS and GIS.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Description of the study area

Enugu State (Figure 1) was created on August 27, 1991 with the

city of Enugu as its capital. The State derived its name from the

capital city which was established in 1912 as a small coal mining