Farmers' perceptions and willingness to adopt egg and snail shells as alternative calcium sources for poultry production in the Western region of Ghana

This paper examined farmers' awareness, perceptions, and willingness to adopt eggshells and/or snail shells as alternative sources of calcium in the formulation of poultry feed. A multistage sampling technique was adopted to obtain data from 284 poultry farmers in the Western region of Ghana. Descriptive statistics, the perception index, and bivariate probit regression model we used in the analysis. The Likelihood Ratio test confirmed that there is a correlation between farmers' willingness to adopt eggshells and/or snail shells as alternative calcium sources (p < 0.05). The results indicate that, while 79.56% of the farmers were aware of the potential of eggshells as a variant source of calcium in poultry feed, only 61.97% of the farmers are aware of the same potential for snail shells. The results further suggest that poultry farmers generally have positive perceptions about the use of an alternative source of calcium in poultry feed formulation. Furthermore, 80.28% and 65.49%, of the farmers are willing to adopt eggshells and snail shells as variant sources of calcium, respectively. Factors such as years of education, household size, credit access, and extension access, and ownership of layer farms were found to significantly and positively influence the willingness of poultry farmers to adopt eggshells and snail shells as alternative sources of calcium. There is therefore the need for effective sensitisations and education through training programs by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Universities, Animal Research Institutions, private organizations, or poultry feed manufacturers. Credit access is also key to helping farmers invest in equipment and materials, so financial institutions should provide low-interest loans. Finally, it is crucial to have extension services that are customized to the unique requirements of farmers, considering factors such as their location, farm size, and education level, to effectively disseminate information about the advantages of egg and snail shells.