MAJOR CONSTRAINTS AFFECTING SHORT PERIOD SMALL-SCALE CATTLE FATTENING ENTERPRISE IN SOME SELECTED LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS, KANO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study was conducted to assess the major constraints of cattle fattening among short period small scale cattle fatteners in some selected Local Government, Kano State, Nigeria. Structured questionnaires were used to collect information from 146 respondents using multistage sampling techniques. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistic. The result of the study revealed that majority of the respondents were male (97.30%) and married (93.20%) within the average age of (43.00) years, with the majority having the average fattening experience of 12.00 years. The study further revealed that majority of the respondents earned an average of N28, 928.08 monthly offfattening incomes; possess one form of education or the other while most of them were crops and
livestock farmers (39.70%) as their occupation. Insufficient capitals, high cost of feeds and inadequate access to institutional source of credits were identified as major constraints to cattle fattening; the study recommend that as the program is usually labour intensive, women should be encourage and supported by government and NGO to participate in the fattening program through women cooperative societies and women in Agriculture, this will help them to improve their standard of lliving.