Urban Vegetable Crop Production and Production Efficiency

Abstract

The problem of food availability and access has become more acute in urban areas as growth has concentrated in metropolitan areas. Uneven distribution of income, prevalence of poverty, diminishing farmlands, inefficient distribution systems, and rising expectations have contributed to increasingly critical problems of food supply and distribution. Urban agriculture in developing economies has evolved in response to changing demand and supplies. The study was carried out in southwestern Nigeria, to determine the production efficiencies and causes of inefficiencies in urban production on a low lying, seasonally flooded, plain that has enough retained moisture to support dry season cropping of short duration crops. This is termed fadama agriculture. A sample survey of 242 urban vegetable farmers was conducted between and March 2006. Data on yield, planting combinations, and farm size were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The stochastic frontier model of technical efficiency was used in estimating the production efficiencies of farms, and the sources of technical inefficiency. Mean farm size was 0.54 ha; the mean age of producers was 42.6 years while the mean technical efficiency was 74.36%. The major sources of technical efficiencies were found to be in the employment of labor, and in the use of land and seed or cultivar resources. Telfaria occidentaleHook, Amaranthus hybridusL. and Zea maysL. combinations were found to be the common crops mix on fadama farms. Fadama agriculture can be used to alleviate food shortages among urban dwellers in countries with developing economies.