Resource Use Efficiency among Fadama Crop Farmers in Ibadan/Ibarapa Agricultural Zone of Oyo State, Nigeria.
Abstract
The study investigated the resource use efficiency among Fadama crop farmers in Ibadan Ibarapa agricultural zone of Oyo state, Nigeria.
Data were collected from 120 respondents who were randomly selected and interviewed using both interview schedule and questionnaire.
The data collected were presented using percentage and means. The findings o revealed that there was no significant difference in the productivity between Fadama and non fadama (soko) farmers,
while there was a significant difference between the productivity of Fadama and non fadama (watermelon) farmers as well as Fadama and non fadama maize farmers.
The gross margin analysis of Fadama and non Fadama crop farmers revealed that Fadama soko farmers and Fadama maize farmers were more profitable than the non Fadama farmers in the area.
For watermelon, the non fadama farmers were more profitable because they had higher output.
The findings also revealed that labour, fertilizer, insecticides and seed influenced the technical efficiency of soko farmers.
Herbicides and insecticides influenced the technical efficiency of watermelon farmers, while labour, insecticide and seed influenced the technical efficiency of maize farmers.
The positive coefficient for age variable implies that the older farmers were more technically inefficient than theyounger ones.
Introduction
Background of Study
Smallholder agriculture is the dominant occupation of rural Nigerians which is mainly rain-fed. Yet, Nigeria has a potential comparative advantage in the production of a variety of fresh and processed high value crops, especially vegetables during the dry season and livestock product (meat and milk) through out the year.
This is because the country is endowed with underground and surface water reserves, rich pastures and favourable agro-ecological conditions in the country’s low-lying plains with alluvial deposit called fadama.
Agriculture constitutes a significant sector of Nigeria’s economy. The sector is significant in terms of employment generation, contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and until early 1970, agricultural exports were the main sources of foreign exchange earnings (Amaza and Olayemi, 2002). During the 1960s, the growth of the Nigerian economy was derived mainly from the agricultural sector.
However, in more recent years,there has been a marked decline in the performance of Nigeria’s agriculture. National Gross Domestic Product (GDP), declined from 62% in the 1960s to 47.9% in the 1970s, down to a low 19% in 1980’s, but following the SAP, this share was turned around in the 1990’s rising steadily to 38% in 1994, 39.2% in 1997 and 41.3% in 2000 (Ndubuizu, 2003).
The agricultural sector’s changing share of GDP is partly a reflection of the relative productivity of the sector.Farm incomes are generally very low due to declining productivity(World Bank, 1996).
The low farm income, resulting from declining productivity in the agricultural sector, could be attributed to the dependence on rainfall for production in some parts of the country, the scarcity of which becomes a critical limiting factor to all-year-round cultivation.
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