Technical Efficiency and Profitability among Maize Based Farmer in Kajola Local Government of Oyo State.
- February 12, 2022
- Posted by: rsispostadmin
- Categories: Agriculture, Economics, IJRISS, Social Science
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue I, January 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186
Matthew Olufemi Adio1 and Adebola Toyin Olaoye2
1Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Faculty of Agriculture, Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria
2 Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso
ABSTRACT:
Maize consumption is widespread across the country and among households of different wealth. The challenge to increase the efficiency in food production level in Nigeria appears to be more urgent now than it has ever been in the history of the country and in particular, Kajola Local Government area of Oyo State. This study analyzes the technical efficiency and profitability among maize base farmer in Kajola Local Government of Oyo State. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 80 maize based farmers in the five villages using well-structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, gross margin and stochastic frontier analysis were employed to analyze the data collected. Result showed that the mean age and household size of the respondents were 46 years and 5 respectively. The profitability analysis showed a profit of ₦2711842.6 was recorded. The stochastic analysis revealed that capital, is the most important factors to increase maize productivity. The study concluded that the productivity of the factors could be improved by expanding the capital base, and adequate and timely education through constant training in the latest farming techniques while alternative capital sources through financial capital (savings, funding, remittances etc.) government grants, be available to farmers in other to boost production.
Key words: Maize, Technical efficiency, Profitability, Stochastic Frontier, and Gross margin
INTRODUCTION
Most common characteristic of Nigeria is an agrarian economy with 70% of its people dependent on agriculture (NBS, 2007). Agriculture is dominated by peasant farmers relying mainly on traditional method and crude implements (Njiforti2008).The Government of Nigeria has been trying to achieve food security at both household and national level through its mechanized approach. It is however surprising that, with all her potentials, agricultural progress can hardly meet its food requirements. Some of the challenges of food Production in Nigeria according to Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Recourses (FMAWR) (2008), have been attributed to several factors such as; small land area cultivated by farmer of less than hectare for cropping; sub-optimal supply of agricultural inputs such as fertilizer, limited access to credit. Less than 10% of irrigable land is under irrigation and only 40% of the arable land is under cultivation (Kareem et al., 2008). The ability of the farmer to perform his role in agricultural development according to Ogunsumi et al., (2005), has been on the decline in the last three decades. One of the reasons identified as the causes of the declining performance of the sector is inefficient allocation of available farm resources; Land, Labour, seed, and fertilizer, these managerial resources are inefficiently allocated thereby leading to decrease in productivity and reduced agricultural output. Measuring efficiency is important because this is the first step in a process that might lead to substantial resource saving which have economic implication for both policy formulation and firm management (Ajibefun and Abdulkadir, 2004; Usman, 2009).
The possibilities of achieving the desired level of agricultural productivity in the past were indescribable owing to the fact that innovative technologies were introduced to Nigerian agricultural system Olarinde, et al., (2020).The trends in yields have been very disappointing and characterized by very unstable and mostly negative growth. For example, between 1998/2000 and 2001/2003, negative growth rate in yield was observed for maize, sorghum, rice, cassava, yam and rubber. It has also placed a serious stress on the marketing systems (Ojo and Imoudu, 2000). Also Nigeria produced 7.5 million metric tons of maize in 2008 and decline to 7 million metric tons in 2012, Food and Agricultural Organization, FAO (2014). The growth in output in the face of declining yields suggests that the bulk of the production increase is accounted for by expansion in cultivated area. Maize is one of the most important cereal crops in Nigeria where over 150 million people consume an average of 43 kilograms per year (Oyelade and Awanane, 2013). Maize consumption is widespread across the country and among households of different wealth (Cadoni and Angelucci, 2013). The widening gap between food demand and supply in the country which necessitated massive food imports continued to swell Nigeria agricultural import bills despite all remedial measures to assuage the problem.
