scholarly journals Assessment of dry season garden egg production among small-scale farmers in Edu Local Government Area of Kwara State, Nigeria

2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-103
Author(s):  
Olubunmi Omotesho ◽  
Abdulazeez Muhammad-Lawal ◽  
Khadijat Amolegbe ◽  
Tauheed Abubakar

The study was carried out for the purpose of assessing dry season garden egg production among small-scale farmers in Edu Local Government Area of Kwara State. The study adopted a snowballing sampling technique to sample 120 small-scale garden egg farmers. Five research questions were formulated to achieve the objectives of this research work. Descriptive statistics, cost and return analysis and OLS regression were used to analyze data collected. Cost and return analysis shows that the total revenue generated from the sales of irrigated garden egg produce for a typical farmer was N 36,596.5k while the total fixed cost (depreciated) and variable input cost amounted to 1,279.22K to give a net farm income (NFI) of N 24,582.68k. The OLS regression results revealed that the coefficients of farm size and household size were positive and significant at the 1% and 10% levels of probability respectively. This implies that an increase in farm size by 1 ha will increase the production of dry season garden egg by 1 percent. While the results of stochastic production frontier estimate show that the parameters of labour, fertilizer and farm size were highly significant, chemical use was significant at 10% level. This result implies that the farmers were technically efficient in the use of labour, fertilizer, chemical and farm size. Therefore, it is recommended that farmers should be encouraged to form cooperative societies, whereby they can join their resources together to provide a cost-effective irrigation system. Also, government authorities and other non-governmental organizations are encouraged to give farmers fertilizers and other chemicals at subsidized rates. There is a need for revitalization of the marketing board in Nigeria to further strengthen the marketing of agricultural produce and reduce marketing, storage and transportation problems.

Author(s):  
A. A. Dalla ◽  
S. K. Vihi ◽  
B. Jesse ◽  
L. G. Tor

This study assessed cost and returns analysis of groundnut production in Qua’an Pan Local Government Area of Plateau State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to determine the socio economic characteristics of groundnut producers in the study area, estimate the cost and returns of groundnut production, determine the input and output relationship in groundnut production and identify the constraints faced by groundnut farmers in the study area. Multistage sampling technique was used in selecting 150 respondents for the study. Primary data were collected through the use of structured questionnaires and interview technique and were subjected to both descriptive and inferential statistics. The results obtained from the study revealed that the mean age of the respondents was 38 years with males dominating (82%) the groundnut production enterprise in the study area. Greater (85%) percentages of respondents were married with majority (64%) of them having primary school education. The respondents had an average household size of nine (9) persons, a mean farming experience of 9.3 years and an average farm size of 3.0 hectares. The result also revealed that majority (72%) of the respondents did not belong to any cooperative/ farming association. The result indicates that majority (79%) of the groundnut farmers acquired their farmland by inheritance. Groundnut production in the study area is profitable. The average output obtained per hectare was 696 kg at the prevailing selling price of ₦280/kg. The total revenue (TR), gross margin (GM) and, net farm income (NFI) per hectare obtained were ₦194880, ₦139380 and ₦123730 respectively. The return on naira invested (RNI) by farmers in the study area was ₦1.70 indicating that for every one naira invested, ₦1.70 profit was gained. The result of the double log production function analysis shows that farm size, cost of fertilizer and cost of labour were statistically significant and influenced the profitability of groundnut production.  Major constraints to groundnut production in the study area include; high cost of inputs (64 %), high cost of labour (49 %), lack of organized market system (47%), land tenure (42%) among others. The study recommends that groundnut stakeholders and research institutes should work more on introducing new improved groundnut varieties. Government should subsidize groundnut inputs like recommended fertilizer and herbicides so as to motivate farmers to grow groundnut. Government should establish organized marketing systems where farmers will have proper and reliable linkages with buyers thereby reducing the undue exploitative tendencies of the middlemen.  Improved storage facilities should be provided so that farmers could store their produce to avoid spoilage and for sale during times of scarcity.


Author(s):  
O. O. Kuye ◽  
T. O. Edem

This study investigated the determinants of loan repayment among small-scale cassava farmers in Akpabuyo Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria. Data were collected with structured questionnaire from 160 randomly selected farmers. Data were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics, multiple regression and likert scale. Results showed that males were dominant (56.6%) in cassava production and majority (37.5%) were between 41-50 years. About 50% had farm income of less than N100,000.00 while about 46.3% had less than N50,000.00 as their off-farm income. Also, the results found that majority (44.4%) obtained loans from informal sources. Factors  that significantly affected loan repayment include off-farm income and interest rate (p ≤ 0.05) and farm income (p ≤ 0.05). The major causes of loan diversion were seasonal activities  in the agricultural sector (66.9%) and inadequate sustainable income (65.6%) among others. The major constraints faced by the farmers in terms of loan repayment were high interest rate and short period of repayment among others. Government should encourage the formal loan sources to open branches in the rural areas for easy loan accessibility by farmers and to obtain loan with moderate interest rate.


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