Production function analysis of Pumpkin (Cucurbita spp) in Central Agricultural Zone of Nasarawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study analyzed the production of Pumpkin (Cucurbita spp) in Central Agricultural Zone, Nasarawa State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study described the socioeconomic characteristics of farmers and analyzed the factors that affect the production of pumpkin (Cucurbita spp) in the study area.  A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 60 respondents. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and production function analysis. The results of the socio-economic characteristics showed that 68.3% of the respondents were male and between the ages of 31 and 40 years (53.3%). Also, majorities (81.7%) of the respondents were married. and larger proportion (71.7.0%) had one form of education or the other. The findings also revealed that 55.0% had household sizes of between 6 and10 persons, with 41.7% having household sizes of less than 5 persons. Major proportion (58.3%) had farm sizes of less than 2 ha. Larger portion (70%) of the respondents did not belong to any cooperative association and substantial percentage (73.3%) had no access to credit facilities and 71.7% had no access to extension services. Coefficients for household size, labour, seed, fertilizer and farm size have the expected positive apriori signs. Agrochemicals had negative coefficient sign and significant at 5 % probability level. The R2 was also computed at 0.894 indicating that about 89.4% variations were explained by the variables included in the model. Government should encourage pumpkin farmers through provision of affordable and accessible credit facilities to boost scale of production and Research institutions should be encouraged to develop technologies that will minimize the menace of pests and disease infestation in pumpkin production. Adequate and well trained extension agents should be made available to provide supports to the farmers.