Perception and performance of poultry farmer Commodity Interest Groups (CIGS) on the Commercial Agricultural Development Project (CADP) in Enugu State, Nigeria

RE: WITHDRAWAL OF PUBLISHED ARTICLE ENTITLE: “PERCEPTION AND PERFORMANCE OF POULTRY FARMER COMMODITY INTEREST GROUPS (CIGS) ON THE COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECT (CADP) IN ENUGU STATE, NIGERIA.” PUBLISHED IN GLOBAL JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES VOL. 17, P. 85-89 (2018). I attach herewith letter from the authors of the above article requesting that their article be withdrawn because of argument on position. The study was conducted to assess the perception and performance of poultry farmer commodity interest groups on the Commercial Agricultural Development Project (CADP) in Enugu State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to identify the factors that affected the perception of poultry farmer farmer commodity interest groups (CIGs) on the CADP in the state and compare the performance of poultry farmer CIGs in terms of gross margin and after CADP. Multistage random sampling technique was employed in the selection of 150 poultry CIGS.The result of the Probit analysis showed that the coefficients for age, level of education, income of the farmers and access to information by farmers were all positive correlated, while that for political connection in the state was negatively correlated to the perception of the poultry farmers CIGs on CADP. The total variable cost (TVC) of CIGs with financial grant increased from ₦ 3,493,110 to ₦ 5,570,300. With financial grant, total revenue more than doubled; without financial grant it was ₦ 10,788,448, and with financial grant, ₦ 22,785,219. The Gross Margin also had a significant increase from ₦ 7,295,338 without financial grant, to ₦ 17,214,919 With financial grant. The following recommendations were proffered: CADP should increase matching-grant on input, especially on feed which constitute the major cost, CADP’s grants should be awarded to qualified farmers within the shortest possible time and CIG groups interested in participation in the project should be given relevant training. Keywords: Poultry Farmers, Commercial Agriculture, Interest Groups, Financial Grant, Gross Margin