ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS REQUIRED BY INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS IN QUAIL PRODUCTION FOR SUSTAINABLE LIVING IN NORTH-CENTRAL NIGERIA

Abstract

The  study  was  carried  out  to  identify  the  entrepreneurial  skills  required  by  Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in quail production for sustainable living in North-Central Nigeria. Specifically,  the study identified  skills in planning, rearing and  marketing of quail and its products in the area of study. To achieve these specific objectives, three research questions and three null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population  for the  study was 69, made up of 22 lecturers of agricultural education and 47 registered quail farmers in the area of study. Sixty-nine copies of the questionnaire  were administered  and  retrieved  from  the respondents.  The internal consistency of the instrument was established using the Cronbach’s alpha (α)method which yielded a coefficient  of 0.83.  The data collected  were analysed  using mean to answer the research  questions  while  t-test  statistic  was  used  to  test  the  hypotheses  at 0.05  level  of significance.  Findings  showed  that15  skills in planning  for quail production,  24 skills  in rearing quail birds and 18 skills in marketing of quail eggs and meat were required by IDPs. Significant  difference  exists  (p<0.05)in  the  mean  responses  of  lecturers  of  agricultural education and quail farmers on skills in planning, rearing and marketing of quails in the area of study. It was recommended among others that dates for projects should be scheduled, IDPs should be encouraged in quail production for both financial gain and improved protein intake to  avoid  acute  malnutrition  and  subsequent  death  rate  faced  by IDPs  in  North-Central Nigeria.

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

Farmers in Nigeriaare attracted  toquail due to its economic viability such as  rapid growth, early onset of lay, low feed consumption, resistance to many poultry diseasesand for its meat, eggs and other values.Quailaccording to Redmond (2009) is a small migratory game bird with mottled brown feathers and a short tail.According to Onyewuchi, Offor and Okoli (2013) quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally considered in the order Galliformes.Quails are small birds that are brown in colour with smallish structure from either of these families Phasianidae or  Odontophoridae  reared for their meat, egg or medicinal       purposes.Department       of       Agriculture,       Fisheries       and       Forestry,

Australia(DAFF)(2013)  asserted that quail is a small game bird that is raised because of its eggs and meat.Quail is a small bird with mottled brown feathers and short tail raised for its eggs.There  are  two  main  species  of  quail  birds  suitable  for  breeding,   whichinclude; “Japanese”quail(Coturnix japonica) and the “America” quail (Coturnix coturnix). Davies and Mets (2013) asserted that Japanese quail is known as Pharaoh variety.

Quail has natural characteristics when compared to other animals especially chicken. Quail birds mature early, and start laying eggs at6-7 weeks old and lay about 280-300 eggs in a year.Their eggs take about 16 to18 days to hatch. The eggs have  high  immunity against diseases and require small floor space for rearing. Quail meat is low in fat while the eggs have nutritional  and medicinal  values(Ministry  of Livestock  Development,MOLD,  2012). The bird is an ideal food for man as recommended in the Holy Bible and the Holy Koran; thus  showing  that  quail  has  no  religious  taboos  (Muthoni,  2014).  Quailfarmer  (2013)

explained that in Exodus 16:11-13, Numbers 11:31-34, Psalm 105:40 of the Holy Bible andin

d to the I roduction

Holy Qur’an 2:57 God used quail birdas brea     1

sraelites.Due to the importance of quail

to man, farmers are recently engaging in its p               .

Production  in  the  view  of  Uko  (2003)  is  the  combination  of different  inputs  or resources with the aim of creating a given output. Ekong in Ella (2003) explained production as  the  generation  and  management  of  factors  like  land,  labour  and  capital  including entrepreneur to create goods for the improvement of economic status of the members of the society. Iwena (2008) defined production as all activities geared  towards creation of goods and services for man’s benefits. Production according to Usman, Haruna and Lombin (2008) is the process of efficient conversion of a farm’s basic inputs such as stock, feeds, labour and other related items into basic outputs or products like meat, eggs and manure.In this study production is the utilization of land,  capital and labour by individual to carry out activities geared towards creating an output which is quail egg. Production could also mean the process

of raising quail birds by making use of scarce resources like land, labour and capital by a farmer for their eggs and meat.

Quail production brings the eggs and meat to bear as its products. Roysfarm (2014) stated that quail production means raising quails commercially for the purpose of profitable eggs or meat. Quail production can be well managed to yield high profit when suitable skills are applied at the right time and place. Effective large scale rearing of quail birds for egg or meat production requires that the individual must possess the needed skills.

Skillaccording to Osinem (2008) means a well-established  habit of doing something as a result of acquisition  of performance  capabilities.  In the view of  Agusiobo  in Lawal, Onipede, Oketoobo and Famiwale (2014), skill is any psychomotor, manipulative or technical tasks  needed  for performance  of any given occupation  which  could be acquired  through observation, training and learning. Greene (2015)definedskill as a learned ability to carry out a task with pre-determined results often within a given amount of time, energy, or both. Skill in the context of this study is the carrying out of activities in large scale for the production of quail eggs and meat with the aim of enhancing the income of the entrepreneur.   Such skills are required in planning, rearing and marketing of quail products with the aim of realizing income to enhance standard of living. To plan, rear and market quail products, the farmer must possess an entrepreneurial skill.

Entrepreneurial skills according to Adeyemo (2009) are the basic abilities needed to enable one start, develop, finance and succeed in an enterprise.   Hisrich and Peter in Bosire and Nzaramba (2013) asserted that entrepreneurial skills are the abilities to create something new  with  value  by devoting  the  necessary  time  and  effort,  assuming  the  accompanying financial,  psychic  and social risks,  receiving  the resulting  rewards  of  monetary,  personal satisfaction and independence. Lackeus (2013) defined entrepreneurial skills as knowledge, abilities, attitudes and willingness to perform job  for value creation, that can be measured

directly or indirectly and that can be improved through training and development.  Therefore, entrepreneurial skills refer to the essential knowledge, abilities and attitudes that influence the interest of an individual to carry outa business with new ideas for creativity.Entrepreneurial skills are important to many individuals who earn no income such as displaced persons.

Displaced Persons (DPs) under international law are persons who have been forced or obligated  to flee or to have cause to leave their  homes or place of habitual  residence  in particular, in order to avoid the effect of armed conflict, violations of human rights, situations of generalized violence, natural or man-made disasters, to another place considered relatively safe  (Ladan,  2006).  The  author  further  stated  that  displaced  person  could  beinternally displaced persons (IDPs) or refugees.Internally Displaced  Persons are individuals forced to move or flee from their habitual residence by either natural or man-made disaster but do not cross an internationally  recognized  border  while  refugees  are individuals  forced  to move crossed an international  legal border.  The displaced person of interest in this study is the internally displaced person.

Internally  Displaced  Persons(IDPs)according  to  the  Office  of  the  Coordinator  of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) (2003) are individuals or groups of individuals forced to flee their homes or places of habitual residence  suddenly or unexpectedly,  to  another location within the same country due to armed conflict, systematic violations of human rights, internal strife, or natural or man-made disasters.Hamzat  (2013) explained  that Internally displaced persons (IDPs) arising from violent clashes are victims of  various kinds of injustices and violent  confrontations  perpetrated  against  them  by  agents  of  communal  clashes,  riots, terrorism,  natural  disasters,  and  religious  conflicts,  among  others.In  this  study,  IDPs are individuals who have been compelled  to  let go their place of abode to a relatively secured abode either as a result of a natural or man-made event on temporary or permanent basis and

are within the nation’s borders. The IDPs considered for this study areresidence in the geo- political zone of North-Central Nigeria.

North-Central is one of the six geo-political zones in Nigeria with six States and the Federal  Capital  Territory,  Abuja.  The  zoneis  situated  in the  central  part of the  country, andshares  boundary in the North withKebbi,  Kadunaand  Bauchi  States;  in  the East with Taraba  State  and  Cameroun  Republic;  in  the  South  withCross-River,  Ebonyi,  Enugu, Anambra, Edo, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, and Oyo States, and in the West with Benin Republic. The population  of  the  zoneaccording  to  Nigerian  Census,  2006  in  Ostien  (2012)  20,338,257 million people. Distributed in descending order among States; Benue has 4,291,244; Niger has 3,950,249; Kogi has 3,278,487; Plateau has 3,178,712; Kwara has 2,371,089; Nasarawa has 1,863,275; and FCT, Abuja has 1,405,201 giving a grandtotal of 20,338,257.

In North-Central zone of Nigeria, most of the incidences of internal displacement (ID) occur  because  of  violence  with  ethnic,  religious  and  political  undertones.  Thousands  of people are internally displaced as a result of natural disasters such as flooding in the North and West,  erosion in the East and oil spillage  in the Niger  Delta (South-South)  parts of Nigeria.  Some  incidences  also  occur  because  of  clashes  between  Fulani  herdsmen  and farmers,  conflicts  with  security  forces  and  cattle  rustlers.  Examples  of  human-induced conflict groups are: O’odua People’s Congress (OPC), the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign  State of Biafra  (MASSOB),  the Movement  for the Emancipation  of Niger Delta (MEND), the Niger-Delta insurgency and the Boko Haram all in Nigeria. According to Action  Aids   International  (2008)  findings  have  showed  that  vulnerability  to  internal displacement in Nigeria is not only due to natural and human-made disasters, armed conflict, ethno-religious-political  conflicts but also worsened  by extreme poverty and  lack of equal access   to   socio-economic   resources.These   groups   of  individuals   were   mobilized   to camps,living in the IDPs’ camp was aimedat granting safety to life against the cause of their

displacementbut, reverse is the case due to other challenges. The emerging global challenges include  attacks by Boko  Haram,rape,  unwanted  pregnancies,  child  labour/trafficking,  and sexually   transmitted   infections/diseases    (National   Emergency   Management   Agency, NEMA,2015). In Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, 1000 IDPs were screened for HIV/AIDS and five tested positive while in Bali-Taraba  state,   48; 13 and nineIDPs died of cholera, measles and other ailments respectively (NEMA, 2015). Another challenge was in the aspect of sourcing data on the precise  number of IDPs in Nigeria.Apart  from general challenges, IDPs suffer from separation  from sources of income such as land, living accommodation andstipend  generation  opportunities.  Opportunities  in  income-generation  can  be  attained when displaced persons are engaged in quail production for sustainable living.

Sustainable living in the view of Apel, Elliott, Glenn, Prichard, Rashash, Simon, and Simon-Brown (2011) is a lifestyle that is deeply satisfying, fulfilling, and appealing because it is socially, environmentally,  and economically  friendly.  Sustainable  living  according  to Regenerative  Leadership  Institute  (RLI)  (2015)  means  living  a  lifestyle  that  uses  a few resources with the least environmental damage. In the context of this study, sustainable living is a lifestyle that makes IDPs competent to rely on their skills and using the few resources available to raise quail eggs for eggs production in order to meet their needs without harming the environment.

Kuteri in Uba (2015)  noted that the Entrepreneurship  Development  Centre  (EDC) which began in 2013 had empowered more than 4,000 IDP beneficiaries across the North- East  region,   promoting   economic   development   and   turning  unemployed   youths   into productive citizens. Kuteri in Uba further stated that the EDC training had  produced more than 700 IDPs who were taught how to start and manage a business so that they would be self-reliant even in the camps. Oricha (2015) through the Adamawa State Government has initiated  a poverty alleviation programme  called  Social Welfare Economic  Empowerment

Programme   (SWEEP),  enlisting  over  60,000  IDPs  as  first  beneficiaries.   Some   Non- Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have also contributed their efforts to provide trainings and funding for IDPs to enable them start their own businesses or scale up  any economic enterprises they are interested in.

During preliminary interview of the IDPs to establish the need for quail production; they demanded for a faster yielding poultry between chicken and quail.  Quail was chosen against chicken couple with the high resistance to infections by quail, fast growth rate and small land space required for rearing of quail, profitable with associated medicinal values to help the IDPs overcome their protein deficiencies  problem. Quailegghelps  in healing IDPs from  illnesses  such  as  depression,  trauma,  diabetes,  hypertension,  and  cancer  among othersfor sustainable living as such, the need for entrepreneurial skills in quail production for sustainable living of IDPs in North-Central Nigeria.

Statement of the Problem

In some parts of Nigeria, people are forcefully ejected from their houses and camped in different  locations  for safety. The rate of displacement  of persons by either  natural or human-induced disaster has much impact on the North-Central zone of Nigeria than in other geo-political   zones.   It  has  been  observed   by  the  researcher   that   insurgency,   urban development projects, flood, erosion,are among other causes of displacing persons from their place of abode to unplanned residences in North-Central Nigeria.

The displacements ofpersons internally have resulted to ailments such as depression, trauma, panic and anxiety, hypertension,migraine  and in addition to gastric  ulcer, diabetes, cancer,  asthma,  and  anaemia.These  and  many  other  factors  have  adverse  effects  on the individual(s)  and  the  nation  as a whole.  Most  of these  ailments  could  be  controlled  or prevented by eating boiled or raw quail eggs.

The effects of internally displaced persons on the State Governments are enormous in North Central Nigeria. Internal displacement leads to a strain on State Governments’budgets. A substantial  part of State Governments’  expenditure  in the  zone is tailored  towards  the welfare of IDPs. Again, internal displacement of persons leads to reduction in labour force. This in turn affects  production  activities  in the  country especially,  in poultry production sector, Ministry of Agriculture.

Based on these effects, researchers have carried out studies on Internally Displaced Persons  (IDPs),  gender  and  livelihood  amongst  IDPs,  production  and  reproduction  of quaileggsinter  alia.The problem of this study is entrepreneurial  skills  required by IDPs in quail production for sustainable living in North-Central Nigeria is not yet known. Therefore, the  study  identified  the  entrepreneurial  skills  required  by  IDPs  in  quail  production  for sustainable  living in North-Central  Nigeria.  Hence,  put  in question form is: what are the entrepreneurial skills required by the IDPs while in the camps and after leaving the camps without acquiring skills in quail production?

Purpose of the Study

The general purpose of the study was toidentify  entrepreneurial  skills required  by IDPs in quail production  for sustainable  living in North-Central  Nigeria.  Specifically,  the study sought to:

1     Identifyskills  inplanning  for quail  production  required  by IDPs  for  sustainable  living  in

North-Central Nigeria.

2     Identifyskills  in  rearingquails  required  by  IDPs  for  sustainable  living  in  North-Central

Nigeria.

3     Identify skills in marketingquail  eggs and meat required by IDPs for sustainable  living  in

North-Central Nigeria.

Significance of the Study

The study has both theoretical and practical significances. Theoretically, the study is anchored on Hubert and Stuart Dreyfus model(1980) and Bandura’s social learning theory (1977).Themodel  held  that  persons  can  acquire  skills  for  them  to   understand  a  skill effectively after passing through five stages. The stages were  novice,  advanced  beginner, competence, proficient and expertise. The model helped the study with stages in determining a  trainee’s  progress  when  receiving  training  in  quail  production,  made  difficult  skill achievement easy with the ascending stages in place and minimizes error experienced in trial and error of skill acquisition.  While the  theory helped  the study by guiding the IDPs in observing  skill demonstrated  by an  instructor  (live model),guide  trainers in preparing the IDPs’ mind-set for instruction on skill acquisition in quail production and verbal explanation by the instructor which is referred to as the verbal instructional model in the theory.

Practically,  this  studycould  provide  information  to  Internally  Displaced  Persons (IDPs),the   host   community,   Ministry   of   Education,Non-Governmental   Organisations (NGOs), individuals and other researchers.The  host community around  the camp will also benefit from skills of the IDPs through purchasing  the products  in  quail production.  The NEMA administrators could utilize the information providedto seek for land space, building materials  and  finance  for  raising  quail farm  structures  from  the  Federal  Government  of Nigeria and the host community.

The study provided information on quail production to IDPs. The IDPs could utilize the information to raise quail birds. The findings of the study will be of benefit to IDPs when made available to the IDPs through training workshop on planning skills in quail production, rearing  the  birds  and  marketing  of  quail  eggs  and  meat.  The  IDPs  could  utilize  the information to seek for land space from the administrators within the camp in order to raise quail for egg production.

The host communities around the camp could also benefit from the skills of the IDPs through participating in receiving the training. In another perspective, malnutrition which has eaten deep into the IDPs camps, could be exterminated or prevented through production and eating of quail eggs and meat adequately and regularly. Due to the high nutritive content of quails (eggs and meat), optimal protein consumption would be attained and deaths as a result of malnutrition could be reduced among the children of IDPs.

The findings of the study could provide informationto the Ministry of Education on number of the pupils/students withdrawn out of the formal classroom in the study area. The essence is to enable the ministry to diversify means to meet up with the  pupils academic needs while in camps and to enable the IDPs/pupils integrate with the public after leaving the camps. This can be better achieved and sustained by enshrining pedagogical skills into the curriculum of teacher education for teacher training institutions that would prepare teachers for approaches  and  teaching  IDPs  in situation  such as this,  where  Nigeria  is faced  with challenges of displaced persons as a result of insurgencies, floods, erosions, developmental projects inter alia. The findings will prompt the need for organizing workshops, seminar or conferences  by both Ministries  of  Education  and stakeholders  in the community for skill acquisition in quail production.

The resulton quail production could provide information on skills in planning, rearing and marketing of quail. The information could guide the Non-governmental Organisations and philanthropists to contribute to the achievement of skill acquisition goals, by identifying skills andchannelling  their  resources  towards supporting  the IDPs  within and outside  the camp.

The findings of this study would provide individualswith information on accessibility to acquire skills in quail production when the IDPs are self-employed and turned employers of labour, they can train other persons as apprentices. The IDPs live and carry out their works

in communities  where individual persons are, and so the people can patronize  the  quails reared by the IDPs.

Findings of the study couldserve as a reference material to researcherswho  wish  to carry out similar studyin future.The finding could serve as a base for other researchers and assist them in their review of empirical literature on topics related to quail.

Research Questions

The following research questions guided the study:

1     What are the skills in planning for quail production required by IDPs for sustainable living in

North-Central Nigeria?

2      What are the skills inrearing quail birds required by IDPs for sustainable  living in North- Central Nigeria?

3     What are the skills inmarketing quail eggs and meat required by IDPs for sustainable living in

North-Central Nigeria?

Hypotheses

The following  null hypotheses  were formulated  to guide the study and they  were tested at the probability of 0.05 level of significance:

Ho1Significant  difference  does not exist in the mean responses of lecturers of  agricultural education and quail farmers on skills in planning  for quail  production required by IDPs for sustainable living in North-Central Nigeria.

Ho2There  is  no  significantdifference  in  the  mean  responses  of  lecturers  of  agricultural education and quail  farmers  on skills  in rearing  quail  birds  required  by IDPs  for sustainable living in North-Central Nigeria.

Ho3  Significant difference does not exist in the mean responses of lecturers of agricultural education and quail farmers on skills in marketing of quail eggs and meat required by IDPs for sustainable living in North-Central Nigeria.

Scope of the Study

The study was carried out in North-Central  zone of Nigeria made up of six  states including  Benue,  Nasarawa,  Niger,  Kogi,  Kwara,  Plateau  States  and  the  Federal  Capital Territory, Abuja. The study includedlecturers of agricultural education and registered quail farmers.

The content dimension of the study was limited to entrepreneurial skills required by IDPs  in  quail  production  for  sustainable  living.  Specifically,   the  study  explored   the entrepreneurial skills required by IDPs for skills in planning, skills in rearing, and skills in marketing quailsand quail eggs for sustainable living.

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