Technical Efficiency Of Rice Production In North Central Nigeria

Abstract

Rice farmer faces the scenario of getting less than what is possible under the present production environment of banditry and kidnapping in Nigeria, Poor resource utilization impacts negatively on the farmer’s income and business profitability. The concern of every farmer is the maximum yield realization. When this does not happen, the farmer feels bad. The unusual question is; are farmers getting the maximum rice yield. The main objective of the study is limited to the estimation of technical efficiency of rice farmers in the north central zone of Nigeria. Primary data were used to accomplish the objectives of the study. Multi stage proportional random sampling was used to select 360 respondents from Kogi, Benue, Niger, and Federal Capital Territory in North Central zone of Nigeria. The parametric stochastic frontier production function was estimated using a maximum likelihood estimator in two-stage approach. Results indicated that none of the rice farmers was technically efficient but rice farmers can increase their output by more than 63% without any increase in input utilization if the farmers adopt the farm practices of the technical leader. Education, years of farming experience, and age of rice farmers were significant predictors of inefficiency among rice producers in North central zone, Nigeria. Technical efficiency of farmers can be increased by training the farmer on best practices on rice production given that education has a reducing effect on technical inefficiency among farmers in the studied areas.