EFFECTIVE PLANNING AND BREEDING SKILLS FOR SUSTAINABLE POULTRY PRODUCTION IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN SOUTH-EAST ZONE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study was carried out to examine the practical skill needs for sustainable poultry production in senior secondary schools in South-East, Nigeria. The study was guided by nine research objectives, as nine research questions were posed for the study and eight corresponding null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted a descriptive research survey design. The population of the study comprised 1,945 Agricultural Science teachers and 6,280 registered poultry farmers. The sample was made up of 54 teachers and 52 poultry farmers selected based on multi-stage sampling. The instrument for data collection was practical skill needs for sustainable poultry production questionnaire (PSNSPPQ) the instrument was subjected to face validation by five experts in Agricultural Science Education, Veterinary Medicine and Measurement and Evaluation. The reliability index of PSNSPPQ was established using Cronbach Alpha. The reliability index for the whole instrument was 0.92 while the reliability indices for the subscales were planning skills (0.85) and breeding management skills (0.92). Data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation for research questions while t-test for independent means was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The study found that the planning and breeding management skills for poultry production were rated highly needed (HN). The study then recommended that the planning skills and breeding management skills should be integrated in the revised curriculum of agricultural science among others.