Economics of Plantain Production among Farmers in Northeast Nigeria

Abstract

This study analysed the economics of plantain production in Northeast Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study were to; describe plantain farmers’ socio-economic characteristics in Northeast Nigeria; identify factors affecting plantain production in the study area, and also ascertain farmers’ resource use efficiency in plantain production. The study adopted a multi-stage sampling technique to collect primary data from 250 plantain farmers selected from 13 communities. In the analysis of the data, descriptive statistics and a stochastic frontier model were used. The finding of the study indicated that most (86.8%) of the respondents were male, having an average age of the respondents was 39.15 years, who are mostly educated (92.8%) and cultivate an average of 2.39 ha of land. The stochastic frontier production function maximum likelihood estimates of the parameters indicated that the production of plantain is determined by farm size, the number of suckers planted, the amount of hired labour used, and family labour. Similarly, the plantain production cost is being influenced by the cost of plantain suckers, labour, and the depreciated cost of land. Furthermore, the study revealed that the farmers were technically and allocatively efficient, although, the maximum technical efficiency was not achieved by farmers. Therefore, it was recommended that agricultural extension agents should be encouraged to reach plantain farmers with the required production technologies to promote production efficiency.