Technical Efficiencies of Poultry Toll Feed Mills in Kaduna and Plateau States, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the technical efficiencies of poultry feed firms in Kaduna and Plateau States, Nigeria. Primary data were collected using a structured questionnaire from a sample of 51 poultry feed firms, analyzed using descriptive statistics and stochastic frontier technical efficiency function. The findings indicate that poultry feed firms have an average production capacity of 4.2 tonnes per day, operating on an average of 5 days per week using not more than 1 shift per day. The feed mills were found to be technically inefficient with mean technical efficiency of 0.67. The determinants of technical efficiency were found to be operating capacity, distance to major market, number of employees, and availability of ingredients in required quantity as well as ownership type. The high cost and adulteration of ingredients, low patronage, and high competition from larger firms amongst others were factors identified as constraints to efficient poultry feed production. The study recommends that the firms should improve on the deployment of labour as well as improved wages, outsource for cheaper inputs or buy input in group to derive economies of scale and also increase their production in other to potentially maximize output.

A Multi-Objective Optimization of Probability and Capacity Utilization in a Feed Manufacturing Firm Using Goal Programming Techniques

“…Previous studies have employed goal programming techniques in various domains such as production planning in factories and manufacturing plants [8,9,10], financial management and budgetary planning [11,12], process optimization on farms [13], preferences setting in multi-product manufacturing systems [14], aggregating individual preferencesinto global preferences [15], production optimization in the bakery sector [7], and textile manufacturing industry [16] amongst others. Additionally, research conducted in the Nigerian feed manufacturing sector has focused on feed ration optimization in order to reduce cost and improve quality simultaneously [17,18,19], challenges faced by feed manufacturing firms [20,21], optimizing production units and profit [22], and optimizing raw material procurement given limited liquid capital [23]. However, these studies have not adequately addressed the optimization of production in the feed manufacturing sector in terms of profit maximization, cost minimization, and capacity maximization simultaneously, while considering the production stages and available facilities.…”

Design and Fabrication of a Bone Crushing Machine/Hammer Mill for Sustainable Livestock Feed Production

“…The waning in the manufacturing's profitability is a result of the reduction in the throughput produced [5]. The replacement of the shafts, bearings, and hammers is required to bring the machines up to the optimum level of production [6]. Traditional manufacturing procedures have become inadequate for current engineering due to the demand for more accurate processing activities to improve the mechanical performances of structural components.…”