<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Poultry production decision setting is full of risk and imperfect information. Attitude towards risk is a measure of farmers’ willingness to take risks which is an important determinant in their production decisions. Strong social capital emanating from social networks can lead to efficient risk management strategies, thereby minimizing risks faced by the farmers. Therefore, the effects of social capital on the risk attitude of small-scale commercial poultry farmers in Oyo state were assessed. Data were collected from two hundred small-scale farmers and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics, factorial analysis, multinomial logit and a two-stage least square. Results showed that 52.5%, 37.5% and 10% of the poultry farmers were risk averse, risk neutral and risk preferring, respectively. About 31.4% and 68.6% of the female and male farmers respectively were risk averse. Close to a fifth, a quarter and two-thirds of the risk averse, risk neutral and risk takers respectively contributed 21-30% of the decisions in the associations. Fourteen percent of the farmers belonged to homogeneous groups. The choice of being risk averse was affected by marital status, educational level, family size, percentage spent on poultry income and aggregate social capital. There was no reverse causality between risk attitude and social capital.</p></abstract>

Poultry production decision setting is full of risk and imperfect information. Attitude towards risk is a measure of farmers’ willingness to take risks which is an important determinant in their production decisions. Strong social capital emanating from social networks can lead to efficient risk management strategies, thereby minimizing risks faced by the farmers. Therefore, the effects of social capital on the risk attitude of small-scale commercial poultry farmers in Oyo state were assessed. Data were collected from two hundred small-scale farmers and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics, factorial analysis, multinomial logit and a two-stage least square. Results showed that 52.5%, 37.5% and 10% of the poultry farmers were risk averse, risk neutral and risk preferring, respectively. About 31.4% and 68.6% of the female and male farmers respectively were risk averse. Close to a fifth, a quarter and two-thirds of the risk averse, risk neutral and risk takers respectively contributed 21-30% of the decisions in the associations. Fourteen percent of the farmers belonged to homogeneous groups. The choice of being risk averse was affected by marital status, educational level, family size, percentage spent on poultry income and aggregate social capital. There was no reverse causality between risk attitude and social capital.

Do Social Networks have Effects on the Risk Attitude of Commercial Poultry Farmers? Evidence from Southwest Nigeria

Rural Sustainability Research

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Poultry production decision setting is full of risk and imperfect information. Attitude towards risk is a measure of farmers’ willingness to take risks which...

Do Social Networks have Effects on the Risk Attitude of Commercial Poultry Farmers? Evidence from Southwest Nigeria

Published Online: Nov 10, 2017

Page range: 2 - 13

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/plua-2017-0007

Keywords
social capital, risk behaviour, multi-item scale, reverse causality, poultry farmers

© 2017 Oluwakemi Adeola Obayelu et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Do Social Networks have Effects on the Risk Attitude of Commercial Poultry Farmers? Evidence from Southwest Nigeria

Published Online: Nov 10, 2017

Page range: 2 - 13

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/plua-2017-0007

Keywordssocial capital, risk behaviour, multi-item scale, reverse causality, poultry farmers

© 2017 Oluwakemi Adeola Obayelu et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
social capital, risk behaviour, multi-item scale, reverse causality, poultry farmers