ANALYSIS OF THE EFFICIENCY OF MECHANIZED AND NON-MECHANIZED RICE PRODUCTION IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

ANALYSIS OF THE EFFICIENCY OF MECHANIZED AND NON-MECHANIZED RICE PRODUCTION IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract:

This study was conducted to determine the analysis of the efficiency of the non-mechanized and the mechanized rice farmers in Kaduna state. The specific objectives were to determine the inputs and output level of the non-mechanized and the mechanized rice farmers in the study area, to determine the costs, returns and profitability of the non-mechanized and mechanized rice farmers in the study area, to estimate the economic efficiencies of the non-mechanized and mechanized rice farmers in the study area, to determine the factors influencing the economic inefficiencies in the study area and also to identify and describe the problems facing the rice production in the study area. A multi staged sampling technique was used to select 190 farmers for the study. Primary data were used with the aid of structured questionnaire, descriptive statistics, net farm income, rate of return on investment and stochastic frontier production function were used to analyse the data. The average yield of the non-mechanized rice farmers was 1063.7kg/ha and the average output of the mechanized farmers was 2371.43kg/ha, the gross farm income for the non-mechanized rice farmer was N 54961.38 and the gross farm income for mechanized farmers was N122531.27, the Net farm income( NFI)/ha for non-mechanised rice farmers is N 22158.34 while that of mechanized rice farmers is N 57291.28, the t-value was 1766 which was significant at 1% which shows that the significant difference in the profitability of mechanized and non-mechanized rice farmers in the study area. The stochastic frontier production function which was used to measure the technical efficiency with the mean efficiency for non-mechanized rice farmer to be 0.71 with farm size and seed being the significant variable and the mean technical efficiency was 0.93 with farm size, seed, and agro chemical being significant. The mean economic efficiency for non-mechanized farmer was 0.096 while that of mechanized rice farmer was 0.077 which means that the mechanized is more economically efficient than non-mechanized farmers in the use of their resources. Some problems faced by the farmers were inadequate fertilizer, inadequate credit facilities, low rainfall, poor transport facilities. The study recommended that intensive training should be given to farmers on effective use of resources to achieve maximum output.

ANALYSIS OF THE EFFICIENCY OF MECHANIZED AND NON-MECHANIZED RICE PRODUCTION IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA