Appraisal of Efficiency of Fadama Maize Farmers in Osun State, Nigeria

This study appraised the efficiency of fadama maize farmers in Osun State, Nigeria. Data were collected from 180 respondents selected through multistage sampling technique with the aid of structured questionnaire supplemented with oral interview. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, budgetary technique and the stochastic frontier production function. Results of the analysis revealed that; 68% of the respondents were male, 93% were married, and 67.9% had formal education with average farm size of 5.95 hectares of land. The result further revealed that 75.5% of the respondents made use of family labour, and 5 was recorded as mean household size. The results of profitability analysis showed that N307,200 was the mean net revenue and Total Variable Cost (N82,229.29) accounted for 95.5% of the Total Cost (N86,067.97). The estimation of the stochastic frontier production function showed that age, cost of seed, depreciation and operating expenses were negatively correlated with farm output, indicating that an increase in these variables brings about decrease in farm output. Contrarily, a positive relationship existed between farm output and family labour; farm size as well as hired labour, implying that an increase in the variables results in increase in farm output. The result further revealed that farm size; family labour and cost of seeds were statistically significant at 1% i.e. these were the variables influencing the level of maize output in the study area. The Technical Efficiency (TE) of the fadama maize farmers varied significantly between 0.48 and 0.97 with a mean technical efficiency of 0.82. The inefficiency model results showed that number of times of livestock disturbance; variety of seeds grown and level of formal education coefficients were negative suggesting an increase in these variables decreased the technical inefficiency and consequently increased the efficiency. The proportion and prominent constraints reported by the farmers were; lack of storage facility (95.6%), high cost of fertilizer (64.8%), inadequate credit facility (54.1%) and bad road (50.9%). The study concluded that fadama maize production was a profitable and lucrative economic activity, having empirically examined and appraised the efficiency of fadama maize farmers in Osun State, Nigeria. It is now recommended that; fadama, farmers should be provided with credit facilities to enable them finance their farming enterprises, modern inputs should be made available to the farmers at affordable rate by the Agro service centers of each Local Government Area of the State and efforts should be made by research institutes to generate new improved technologies on fadama production.