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.
Assessment of Entrepreneurship Skills Needs of Small-Scale Farmers in Akpabuyo Local Government Area of Cross Rivers State, Nigeria
