Segmentation in Agriculture and Farmers’ Productivity: Evidence from Survey of Poultry Farms

The World Bank intervened in Nigeria agriculture in 2009 to increase productivity in 5 farm areas, namely-poultry, rice, maize, cashew and pineapple farming through the value chain strategy. Agricultural activity was segmented and farmers were encouraged to go into one farm operation only. Proponents of the segmentation argue that it holds the key to solving the low agricultural productivity in developing counties because farmers will only specialize in one farm area. That is, specialization will enable the farmer to innovates better ways of tackling problems, time the market and planting period to mitigate climate change. The aim of the research is to examine the effects of the segmentation practice on the productivity of Poultry farmers in Nigeria, using a survey data. Result from the survey using regression analysis did not support encouraging segmentation in poultry farming. This is because poultry farmers who engaged in more than one poultry practice had more yield of egg per bird. The lesson for agricultural policy is that farmers should be encouraged to engage in multiple farming practice.