Attitudes of poultry farm founders towards succession planning in delta state Nigeria

Introduction

Hong et al. (2007) [10] , stated that poultry farming as part of livestock production is essential to meeting biological needs and enhancing the general well-being of the populace in any country. Maintaining poultry also helps the family's nutrition, including vital nutrients like iron and vitamin A, which are particularly important for children's health. The Intake of poultry meat is considerable in Nigeria as it is a common source of meat during the festivities and it is estimated that the average consumption of poultry meat in Nigeria is about 1.5 million tons annually, Oladeebo and Ambe-Lamidi (2007) [14] . The contribution of family-owned business to the Nigerian economy is believed to provide considerable source of employment, taxes, output, export, revenue and so on. In Family-run firm, intergenerational transfer typically takes place in two key areas: Proprietorship and management (Agbim, 2019) [2] . Ownership succession involves handing over the business's assets and liabilities from the current owner to a successor. More broadly, the process of finding and preparing suitable people, whether family members or reliable associates, to assume more responsibility inside the organization is known as business succession planning (Cho, Limungaesowe, & Vilardndiisoh, 2018) [5] . Particularly within the family businesses, this planning centers on transferring both management and ownership across generations. According to Akpan and Ukpai (2017) [4] , Replacement planning is a strategic effort aimed at facilitating a seamless handover from the incumbent to a successor. This involves structured manpower development to promote the business's continuity and long-term success. They also emphasized that effective succession planning includes selecting a capable successor, gradually shifting control of management, and involving both family and nonfamily members in the process. Over the years, some notable families have invested in diverse section of the economy. They include Damtata family, Odutola industries, Adebowale industries, Dru family, KB Omatseye industries, God is Good Transport, GUO Transport, Young Shall Grow Transport and so on, Given that knowledge can be passed down from generation to generation and, more importantly, the consistent growth of poultry feed manufacturers and suppliers of poultry medications and equipment, family companies predominate in the poultry subsector of the agricultural sector. Attitudes represent the emotional reactions people have to a behavior, which are a compilation of their opinions about the activity and how they assess those opinions (Ajzen et al., 1991) [3] . According to research, people assess and rank their views about a behavior before committing to it; the more strongly they believe in the conduct, the more likely they are to create intentions to engage in it. The perspectives of several academics, including Handler and Kram (1988) [9] ; Harveston, Davis and Lyden (1997) [8] ), within the www.extensionjournal.com framework of succession propose a link between certain traits of family-owned businesses and three key attitudes toward succession: 1. The incumbent's desire to keep the company in the family is a reflection of how desirable they believe succession to be. Founders of businesses will usually want their heir to continue from where they stopped; hence elaborative plans are put in place to groom the children and identify that one that showed greater interest in the firm.

The economic impact of family-owned enterprises in Nigeria is believed to provide considerable source of employment, taxes, output, export, revenue and so on. Over the years, some notable families have invested in diverse sectors of the economy. They include Damtata family, Odutola industries, Adebowale industries, Dru family, KB Omatseye industries, God is Good Transport, GUO Transport, Young Shall Grow Transport and so on, In the Given that knowledge can be passed down from generation to generation and, more importantly, the consistent growth of poultry feed manufacturers and suppliers of poultry medications and equipment, family companies predominate in the agricultural sector's poultry subsector.

Even though intergenerational plan is activated, some intergenerational transfer plans do not succeed which can be due to certain factors. In some cases, the one who by birth is the first son may not take interest in being a successor because of interest in another career. There is also the issue of whether the founder is willing to transfer control to any offspring or sell off the farm. Again, transition for farm families, the beginning of a farm enterprise is frequently a difficult time. Views of the founder's attitude as a factor influencing behavioral intentions to give control of poultry farm ownership with the use of theory of planned behavior will provide a suitable comprehension of the preferred methods by which to plan and implement the transfer process thereby leading to the continuity of the business and contribute to economic development. Nigerian society has seen a large number of farmers migrate into poultry farming as a result of the industry's realized income. Experience, however, has demonstrated that a large number of farms, including poultry farms, have closed following the passing of the farmer (proprietor). There is a good chance that the enterprises will not be transferred across generations. It is anticipated that adoption of intergeneration farm transfer will birth continuity of poultry farmers. Building on planned behavior theory, according to (Le Breton-Miller, Miller, and Steier, 2003) [13] , four factors must be taken into account in order to completely comprehend the transition process in family-owned businesses: the family, the firm, the industry, and the cultural context. When deciding what kind of inheritance plan to implement in the family, these circumstances are also crucial for examining the surroundings and weighing the organization's and the family's concerns. This study, however, focuses on the founder's mindset, which in turn affects his transfer intention. Scholars and practitioners can get some understanding from the conceptual model based on the idea of planned behavior that has been provided. Farm transfers across generations are essential to any family's life cycle enterprise.

The study was to ascertain the founder's attitude on willingness to transfer the poultry farm to a designated successor and to identify the factors limiting intergeneration farm transfer among poultry farmer.

Materials and Methods

Sampling technique and sample size

Data gathering and the instrument

The poultry producers were surveyed and interviewed in order to get primary data. The researchers ended up with a final sample of 269 questionnaires after six were unable to be recovered. The researcher administered the research tools. Information from respondents was gathered using the interview schedule

Logit Regression Model

To test the hypothesis and in part achieve the objectives, the logistic regression model was employed to estimate the reaction of farm founders' attitude on the will to transfer ownership and socio-economic background of poultry farmers to inter-generation farm transfer

The logistic function is of the form:

Logit Regression Model for factors influencing willingness to transfer ownership is specified as follows

Where ρᵢ= Intergenerational transfer (yes = ρ₁, no =1-ρ₁) β 0= intercept 𝛽 1 = regression coefficients X 1 = Attitude (positive =1 negative=0) X 5 = Sex (male =0, female =1) X 6 = Age of respondents (below 60 years =0, above 60 years =1) X 7 = Level of formal education (educated =1, not educated =0) X 8 = Marital status (married=1, others= 0) X 9 = Household size (below 5years=0, above 5years=1) X 10 =Farming experience (above 10 years =1. Below 10 years=0) X 11 =Land ownership (owner=1, on lease=0) 𝑢𝑖= Error terms

Results and Discussion Demographic and Socio-economic profile of Poultry Farmers

The findings showed that while 37.51% of farm owners were women, the majority were men (62.50%). This suggests that men made up the majority of Delta State's registered poultry growers which also means that it is likely to have a great influence on the attitude of poultry farmers towards intergenerational transfer as most African culture do not agree with the female counterparts succeeding a business after the demise of the owner of the farm business. Males are primarily responsible for farm succession, while women are compensated by funding their education.

According to the age distribution, the respondents' mean age was 49 years old. According to the results, the farmers are old enough to plan for intergenerational transfers before they retire. The majority were married (70.91%) with household size of 6 persons and thus had responsibility as they have commitment towards their spouse and so possessed responsibility as they were dedicated to their husband and home. This is consistent with the findings of Abushe et al.

(2023) [1] , who claimed that the average household size in Nigeria is six people. 40.11% have at least a bachelor's degree. This supports the findings of Ikpoza et al. (2022) [11] , who reported that the majority of farmers had some kind of schooling. It is implied that most of the respondents have only a basic education and are therefore well-versed in the fundamentals of society. One could argue that education exposes people and influences their awareness and choices about intergenerational transfer. The mean years for farming was 15years, indicating farmers are experienced enough to guide their successors. Majority were farm owners either through inheritance or personal purchase. The implication here is that those who are sole owners of the poultry farm land have more rights that guarantee productivity and security of property and are more likely to consider inter-generational transfer than those who are on lease

Willingness to Hand Over the Farm Business

The result in the table indicates that most (81.10%) respondents affirmed that they are prepared to hand over their poultry business to their heir. This suggests that the vast majority of chicken farmers are prepared to hand over ownership to a chosen successor. The findings of this study are consistent with those of Arowola et al. (2017) [6] , who examined how poultry farmers in southwest Nigeria perceived farm succession planning and discovered that the majority of farmers (95.9%) had a positive opinion of it.

Limitations of Intergenerational Transfer

According to the results in Table 3.3, the majority of respondents (50.20%) are facing the challenge of unwillingness of the potential inheritor to responsibility of the farm business as perceived by the farmer. The implication here is that children's low willingness which could be because they have found their own career paths and will not be willing to assume the family business making the poultry family business face a crisis at the demise or retirement of the farmer or farming household head. Few offsprings that are of the current generation do have low interest in farming and farming activities except those who studied agriculture. Ofuoku and Ugbechie (2017) [16] found that engagement of household children encouraged them to study agriculture and engage in agricultural production activities.

Farm founders' attitude on Willingness to Hand Over to a Successor

The Table below shows the mean value for statements on Attitude, the result reveals that the interviewee are positively disposed and the most prominent statement are ranked to all the following statements: Inter-generation transfer helps in facing future challenges (𝑥¯ = 4.26), Farms without inter-generation transfer is normally sold or abandoned (𝑥¯ = 4.24).

Influence

of farm founders' attitude on intergenerational transfer Binary logistic regression analysis was used to test the hypothesis regarding farm founders' attitudes regarding their willingness to transfer farm ownership in an intergenerational transfer. The logistic regression model in the table is significant (Chi -square = 13.063, df = 4, p = 0.05), according to the model summary (table 3.5), suggesting that the variable attitude influenced intergenerational farm transfer. The model explains almost 78.9% of the variation in intergenerational farm transfer, according to the Nagelkerke R square (0.789) values. According to the table, attitude has a statistically significant positive coefficient of 0.260 (p=0.009). The odds ratio of 0.284 indicates that readiness to transfer ownership is positively impacted by attitude. For each unit increase in disposition, the likelihood ofs willingness to transfer increases. This result corroborates with Sharma, Chrisman, Pablo, and Chua (2001) [17] and Foskey (2005) [7] , without the incumbent farmer's commitment, the likelihood of securing a satisfactory succession is essentially zero. Age, sex, education, and farming experience were among the other characteristics that showed statistical significance. Sex has a statistically significant positive coefficient of 0.879 (p=0.050). This variable's related odds ratio is 2.409. This suggests that the likelihood of a farmer being willing to transfer increases with each unit rise in the farmer's sex (male) increases. The implication here is that most farm owners have this believe that their land properties should be transferred to their male children which make the male dominate the females in terms of transfer of farm ownership. This is consistent with (Ofuoku & Gbigbi, 2022) [15] , who state that women are not entitled to inherit land in the majority of African cultures, but men do. The intention of farmers to transfer ownership is most likely to be influenced by this issue. A statistically significant (p=0.027) positive coefficient of 1.755 is shown for the variable age. This variable's related odds ratio is 5.781. This suggests that the likelihood of the farmer being willing to transfer increases with each unit rise in age, ownership increases. The implication here is that the older the farmer becomes, the more the interest in willing to transfer ownership increases. Education has a statistically significant (p=0.038) positive coefficient of 0.856 and an odds ratio of 4.835 related to education, meaning that the likelihood of being willing to transfer ownership rises by roughly one unit for every unit increase in education 383.5%. The implication here is that the decision to initiate intergenerational transfer and the degree of awareness are influenced by education. The odds ratio for farming experience is 0.608, indicating that for every unit increase in farming experience, the likelihood of intergenerational transfer will rise. The positive coefficient for farming experience is 0.491, which is significant (p=0.013). Experience, according to Hanse and Jervell (2014), fosters knowledge of agricultural operations, reasonable expectations, and the capacity to overcome obstacles.

Conclusion

It is impossible to overstate the significance of intergenerational transfer, regardless of the size of the poultry business; it provides opportunities for the survival and sustenance of poultry farms; high investment in poultry farming and farm type indicates a high likelihood of change; the dynamics of intergenerational transfer differ from those of older generation farmers and have implications for the sustainability of farms, (Nwachukwu et al 2023) [13] . Successors should be chosen from among the family farm labour early enough, awaiting the decision on intergeneration farm transfer. Younger members of farm family should be educated on the continual existence sustenance of the farm business, so as to arouse their interest in the farming business as well as help them to develop positive disposition and attitude towards the farming business. The farm owner needs to impart farming skills and teach them (farm family members) by apprenticeship the intricacies of the business.

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