Own – poultry – feed producers in Akwa Ibom State are producing low quality feeds for their birds, resulting in poor quality chicken and eggs supplied for consumption. Adoption of improved feed production technologies is central to meeting expected feed standards in the poultry industry. While the value of improved feed production technologies have been recognized for feed enrichment and fortification, there is dearth of information about own – poultry – feed producers’ level of adoption of improved feed production technologies in feeds production in Akwa Ibom State. Therefore, own – poultry – feed producers’ awareness and level of adoption of improved feed production technologies in feeds production in Akwa Ibom State were investigated. Using Akwa Ibom State Agricultural Development Project (AKADEP), an extension parastatal of Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Agriculture, responsible for extension services delivery in the state, as the sampling frame with 540 registered poultry farmers, a multistage sampling technique was used to select 190 respondents for the study. A validated structured questionnaire with items on awareness and adoption of improved feed production technologies was administered to the sample. Data were subjected to both descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. Results showed that males constituted 54.2% of the respondents; mean age was 38 yrs ± 2.1 with 3.5% between 30 and 39 years; above sixty percent (60.5%) of the respondents were University graduates and 87.0% had monthly income less than N74, 500.00. Few (31.1%) belonged to livestock and livestock-related organizations. All the respondents (100%) were not aware of mould inhibitors, salmonella inhibitors, acidifiers, enzymes and mycotoxin eliminators. More than half (56.8%) of the respondents were aware of pre-mixes, anti-oxidant, anti-caking, protein concentrates and antibiotics. Fellow poultry farmers were the major (43.6%) source of improved feed production technologies information to the respondents, while print and electronic media accounted for 25.0% of source of information on improved feed production technologies and/or awareness to the respondents. More than forty three percent (43.6%) of the respondents adopted protein concentrates in their feeds production. Forty-one percent of the respondents adopted pre-mixes, anti-caking, anti-oxidants and antibiotics in their feeds production. Sex, educational level and social participation were significantly associated with improved feed production technologies adoption (X2=8.27, p ≤ 0.05; x2 = 8.44, p ≤ 0.05; and x2 = 17.36, p≤0.05, respectively). Similarly, awareness of the improved feed production technologies was significantly associated with its adoption (X2 = 8.27, p≤0.05). Total lack of adoption of mould inhibitors, salmonella inhibitors, acidifiers, enzymes and mycotoxin eliminators could negatively affect poultry feeds and predispose birds to infections, thereby reducing the quality of these products. There is a need for the extension delivery system to improve on their service delivery approach and packaging of feed production technologies information to enhance their adoption
Keywords: Poultry farmers, feed production technologies, poultry feeds
