Factors Affecting the Profitability of Poultry Egg Production in Southern Togo: A Quantile Regression Approach

Agbokou, Kossi Samuel; Hu, Xiangdong; Zhou, Hui; Miawonene, Sergio Djinadja; Yibor, Yao Tranquille; Tadjela, Manamagnim Yao

doi:10.17306/j.jard.2025.4.00035r1

Figures & Tables

Parameter estimates of the Quantile regression and OLS

Quantile variable	τ = 0.25 Coeff	t-ratio	τ = 0.5 Coeff	t-ratio	τ = 0.75 Coeff	t-ratio
Constant	8.905	.9896	7.336^***	6.697	6.937^***	6.134
Gender	.024	.351	.145^*	1.940	.076	.979
Age	.003	.174	.033^*	1.747	.004	.193
Marital status	.005	.096	.040	.701	.111^*	1.865
Education	.016	1.221	.025^*	1.657	–.001	–.093
Experience	.013	.956	.014	.945	.006	.400
Occupation	–.008	–.236	.060^*	1.603	–.001	–.013
Household size	.004	.525	–.002	–.218	–.002	–.199
Association	.025	.731	.004	.099	–.026	–.672
Breed	.009	.433	.024^*	1.049	.046^**	1.920
Vulgarisation	–.016	–.480	–.008	–.204	–.051	–1.34
Credit acces	–.071	–1.555	–0.84^**	–1.672	–.032	–.617
Feed	.466^***	11.676	.436^***	9.876	.494^***	10.84
Transport	–.004	–1.005	–.004	–.904	–.006	–1.29
Labor	.013	.644	–.008	–.375	–.046^**	–1.99
Energy	–.005	–716	.008	.902	.020	2.303
Drugs	–.033	–1.375	–.036	–1.366	–.018	–.653
Equipment	–.013	–.676	–.028	–1.353	–.028	–1.29
Depreciation poultry house	.008	.432	.046^**	2.155	.036^*	1.651
Other charges	.003	.911	–.003	–.777	–.002	–.462
Flock size	.000^***	5.192	.000^***	5.061	.000^***	4.710
Price of egg	.870	1230.1	.867	560.01	.867	281.7
Price of water	.000^***	7.402	.000	5.604	.001	5.206
Price of a hen	.125^***	254.06	.121	112.95	.101	46.99
Pseudo R²	.715		.718		.705
F-statistics	0.000		0.000		0.000
No. of obs.	269		269		269

Description and measurement of variables used in the Quantile regression model

Variables	Variable	Expected sign	Description

1	2	3	4
Dependent variable

Production outcome	Y_i		Quantity of eggs produced (continuous)

Independent variable

Socio-demographic

Sex	X₁	+/−	Gender of the poultry farmer (1 = male, 2 = female).
Age	X₂	+/−	Age of the farmer in years
Marital status	X₃	+/−	1 if farmers are married, 0 otherwise
Education level	X₄	+	Highest level of formal education attained, 0 – none, 1 – breeding training, 2 – primary, 3 – secondary, 4 – university
Experience (years)	X₅	+	Number of years the farmer has been involved in poultry farming (continuous)
Main occupation	X₆	+	1 – whether poultry farming is the farmer’s primary occupation, 0 – otherwise
Household size	X₇	+	Total number of individuals living in the farmer’s household (continuous)

Institutional/organizational factors

Farmers associations	X₈	+	1 – if farmers have a Membership status in a producer organization, 0 – otherwise
Extension services	X₉	+	1 – if farmers have Access to extension services, 0 – otherwise
Access to credit	X₁₀	+/−	1 – if farmers access financial support for poultry farming activities, 0 – otherwise
Production/management practices
Type of breed	X₁₁	+	The main poultry breed raised: 0 – don’t know, 1 – Isa Brown, 2 – Lerghon
Day-old chick	X₁₂	+	Number or cost of day-old chicks purchased for production (continuous)
Feed	X₁₃	+	Quantity of feed used in poultry production (kg) (continuous)
Production costs		+
Energy	X₁₄	+	Quantity of electricity in kWh (continuous)
Veterinary cost	X₁₅	+	Expenses for animal health care (continuous)
Labor cost	X₁₆	+	Wages hired labor used on the farm (continuous)
Transport cost	X₁₇	+	Expenses related to transporting and outputs (continuous)
Equipment	X₁₈	+	Cost of purchasing and maintaining poultry equipment (continuous)
Depreciation	X₁₉	+	Value reduction of buildings (continuous)
Other charges	X₂₀	+	Miscellaneous costs not included in the above categories (continuous)

Distribution of respondents by flock size

Flock size	Frequency	Percentage (%)	Mean	Median	Std. deviation
500–1000	129	47.96
1001–2000	77	28.62
2001–3000	34	12.64
>3000	29	10.78
Total	269	100	1654.09	1500.00	1182.214

Profitability of layer hen production to farmers in South Togo

Description of items	Mean cost in (CFA/year)	Total in CFA	Percentage (%) contribution to total cost
Revenues composition
Egg sales	25327202.01		86.51
Culled layers	3841542.565		13.12
Waste/manure	108794.2379		0.37
Total Revenue (TR)		29277538.82	100
Variable cost item
Cost of birds	1803866.71		7.33
Feed cost	18359987.47		74.65
Labor cost	2960665.428		12.04
Cost of medication/vet services	581710.3643		2.37
Cost of energy	23174.16357		0.094
Other charge	104630.3797		0.43
Transport	496632.7138		2.02
Total Variable Cost (TVC)		24330667.23	88.72
Fixed cost
Depreciation on equipment	93658.28996		0.38
Poultry house	170908.1803		0.69
Total Fixed Cost (TFC)		264566.4703	1.08
Total Cost (TC = TVC+TFC)		24595233.7	100
Gross Margin (GM = TR − TVC)		4946871.586
Net Income (NI = TR − TC)		4682305.115
Returns on investment (ROI = NI/TC)		0.190
Net profit Ratio = NI/TR		0.159

Household size

Variables	House size
Mean	4,30
St. deviation	2,122
Minimum	0
Maximum	9

Distribution of poultry farmers according to socioeconomic characteristics

Variables	Frequency	Percentage
Farming experience (years)
Less than 5	78	29.0
5–10	99	36.8
10–15	43	16.0
15–20	22	8.2
Greater 20	27	10.0
Total	269	100
Main occupation
Part-time poultry farmer	92	34.2
Full-time poultry farmer	177	65.8
Total	269	100
Farmers associations
No	158	58.7
Yes	111	41.3
Total	269	100
Type of Breed
Don’t know	6	2.2
Isah Brown	178	66.2
Lerghon	48	17.8
Isah Brown&Lerghon	37	13.8
Total	269	100
Vulgarization
No	163	60.6
Yes	106	39.4
Total	269	100
Access to credit
No	226	84.0
Yes	43	16.0
Total	269	100

Factors Affecting the Profitability of Poultry Egg Production in Southern Togo: A Quantile Regression Approach

Figures & Tables

Parameter estimates of the Quantile regression and OLS

Description and measurement of variables used in the Quantile regression model

Distribution of respondents by flock size

Profitability of layer hen production to farmers in South Togo

Household size

Distribution of poultry farmers according to socioeconomic characteristics

Paradigm

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