Abstract
The study investigated the technical, Allocative and economics efficiencies of yam producers in Ganye Local government Area, Adamawa State, Nigeria. Combinations of purposive and random sampling techniques were employed using 100 famers from five different wards of the local government. In the first place, five wards were selected and used for this study and twenty farmers were selected from each ward, making a total of 100 famers, twenty. The analytical tool used to achieve the objectives of this study was Data Envelopment Analysis. The results of the study revealed that 57% of the farmers had technical efficiency of 0.81 and above while 43% of the farmers operate at less than 0.81 efficiency level. The mean technical efficiency for the 100 sampled farmers in the study area was 0.78. The farmer with the best practice has a technical efficiency of 1.00 while 0.37 is for the least efficient farmers. This implies that on the average, output fall by 0% from the maximum possible level of 1.00 due to technical inefficiency. The mean allocative efficiency was 0.98. The result indicates that average yam farmer in the state would enjoy cost saving of about 5% while allocative inefficient farmer will have an efficiency gain of 95% to attain the level of most efficient farmer among the respondents. The mean economic efficiency was 0.77. The farmer with the best practice has an economic efficiency of 1.0 while 0.08 was for the least efficient farmers. This implies that on the average, output fall by 52% from the maximum possible level due to inefficiency. Finally, among the constraints identified in the study area, the majority of the respondent attested to the fact that high cost of inputs, transportation problem, lack of credit facilities and storage/preservation problem were the major constraints they faced in yam production in the area. The study concludes that yam farmers in the study area have achieved absolute efficiency in the use of variable inputs. It was found that yam production in the study area is profitable.
Highlights
IntroductionAgriculture, a major resource based activity in terms of capital and labor utilization has the potential of increasing Nigeria’s food self-sufficiency (Bamire and Amujoyegbe, 2010)
The study revealed that for the average yam farmer in the study areas to become the most efficient yam farmer, he will need to realize about 22% cost savings, while on the other hand, the least technically efficient yam farmer will need about 78% cost savings to become the most technically efficient yam farmer
This finding is in line with Okoye, et al (2010) who observed that average cocoyam farmer in the state would en joy cost saving of about 32.9% (1-0.65/0.97) if he or she attains the level of the most efficient producer among cocoyam producers in the study area
Summary
Agriculture, a major resource based activity in terms of capital and labor utilization has the potential of increasing Nigeria’s food self-sufficiency (Bamire and Amujoyegbe, 2010). Actual yield of major food crops are lower than their potential yields (Rahji, 2012). Yam is classified under roots and tuber crops; it is the food crops that belong to genus Dioscorea which contains about 600 species of which only 6 are important as in the tropics. Yams are grown throughout Africa, Nigeria is said to be the world’s largest producer of yam, accounting for over 70-76 percent of the world total output FAO (2007) reported that Nigeria alone in 1985 produced 18.3 million tonnes of yam from 1.5 million hectares, representing 73.8 percent of 28.8 million tonnes of yam produced in Africa
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