Knowledge and performance of poultry producers for farm management skills in Fayoum Governorate

The study primarily aimed to identify the knowledge and performance of poultry producers in farm management skills through achieving the following sub-objectives: identifying the characteristics and distinctive features of the respondents, identifying the agricultural information sources relied upon by the respondents in obtaining their farm management information, determining the level of knowledge of the respondents in poultry farm management skills, determining the level of performance of the respondents in poultry farm management skills, and determining the degree of influence of independent variables on the respondents' knowledge and performance of agricultural management skills. The study was conducted in the Fayoum Governorate, and the Fayoum and Senorus district were chosen as they are the most important district in the governorate in terms of the relative importance of the number of foreign broiler farms. A stratified random sample of 111 farms was taken, and data were collected through personal interviews using questionnaire forms, and numerical tabulations, percentages, and multiple regression analysis were used.
The main results of the study indicated that the main sources of agricultural information relied upon by the respondents were primarily non-institutional personal sources, where veterinarians and personal experience were the main sources of information for the majority of the surveyed farmers, followed by the internet, then other farm owners, with percentages of 98.2%, 96.4%, 84.7%, and 83.8% respectively. The results also showed that 76.6% of the respondents had a high level of overall knowledge of poultry farm management skills, while 18% had an average level of knowledge, and 5.4% had a low level of knowledge. Additionally, the results indicated that 48.6% of the respondents had an average level of overall performance in poultry farm management skills, while 28.8% had a high level of performance, and 22.5% had a low level of performance. The results revealed that the most influential factors on the overall knowledge level of agricultural management skills were educational status, urban openness, poultry farm size, and average income per production cycle, with these four variables contributing to 61.4% of the variation in the dependent variable. Furthermore, results also showed that the most influential factors on the overall performance level of agricultural management skills were average income per production cycle, educational status, number of years working in the poultry field, urban openness, and benefit from attending counseling activities, with these five variables contributing to 62.3% of the variation in the dependent variable.
The results showed that the most influential factors on the overall knowledge level of poultry farm management skills are: educational level, urban openness, poultry farm size, average income per production cycle. The contribution ratio of these four variables together in explaining the variance in the dependent variable reached 61.4%. The results also showed that the most influential factors on the overall performance level of poultry farm management skills are: average income per production cycle, educational level, years of experience in the poultry field, urban openness, and benefit from attending guidance activities. The contribution ratio of these five variables together in explaining the variance in the dependent variable reached 62.3%.