Abstract
Nigeria is blessed with natural resources, among which cocoa is key. Over the years cocoa production has been declining and various interventions have been directed to improving production and productivity of cocoa in Nigeria. One of these interventions is the Farmers’ Field School (FFS) approach. FFS employs a non formal approach to pass across new knowledge of improved and good agricultural practice to farmers. Therefore, the study aimed to examine the effects of Farmer Field School (FFS) on the Technical Efficiency (TE) of cocoa farmers in Cross River and Ondo States, Nigeria. The study areas for this study were the two major cocoa-producing states in Nigeria; Cross River and Ondo States. A total of 120 cocoa farmers were interviewed. This sample size was divided between both states equally. Thus, 60 respondents were selected randomly from around FFS communities for each state. Among the 60 respondents in each state, 30 were FFS participants while the other 30 were Non Farmer Field School (NFFS) participants. The study revealed that the FFS participants had an efficiency score of 0.84 while the NFFS participants’ technical efficiency score was 0.77. The study therefore concluded that the FFS participants were more efficient in the use of factors of production that their NFFS counterparts.
Highlights
Measurement of efficiency and performance of factors of production in Agriculture is very important to researchers as well as farmers
This study reveals that the Farmers’ Field School (FFS) farmers in Nigeria had an average household size of 6 individuals while results from the Non Farmer Field School (NFFS) reveal that the mean household size was 7
2013, Vol 4, No 1 while the NFFS farmers’ mean technical efficiency was 0.77. This indicates that FFS farmers are more technically efficient than the NFFS farmers
Summary
Measurement of efficiency and performance of factors of production in Agriculture is very important to researchers as well as farmers. This is because resources are scarce and in some cases very expensive for farmers to purchase. Agrochemicals and labour as factors of production in cocoa business are very scarce. It is expedient for both the cocoa farmers and the researchers to know whether the cocoa output justify the resources expended on it. Binam et al (2004) in examining the factors influencing technical efficiency of groundnut and maize farmers in Cameroon observed an average efficiency of 73%and 77% for the two crops, after controlling for environmental effects. Binam et al (2004) in examining the factors influencing technical efficiency of groundnut and maize farmers in Cameroon observed an average efficiency of 73%and 77% for the two crops, after controlling for environmental effects. Heshmati and Mulugeta (1996) observed a mean TE of 65% for Ugandan matoke producing farms
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