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Technical Efficiency of Small-Scale Rice Farmers in Nigeria

PO Erhabor and J Ahmadu

The study examined the technical efficiency of small-scale rice farmers in Nigeria. It focused specifically on the socio-economic characteristics of the rice farmers, production function for rice, level of technical efficiency of the farmers and their inefficiency parameters. Data used for the study were obtained using a well structured questionnaire. Out of the 300 rice farmers interviewed, a total of 263 respondents (130 and 133 for Niger and Taraba States respectively) provided useful data for analysis. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics, stochastic frontier production function and inefficiency model. The results of the study showed that rice production in the study area was dominated by married (79%) males (92%) with average age of 45 years, family size of 10 persons and farming experience of about 17 years. Majority (62%) of the farmers had formal education and 65% of them had farming as their major occupation. The farmers had average farm size of 2.93 hectares and average yield of 2,424kg/ha. Furthermore, the results showed the significant presence of inefficiency parameters in the stochastic frontier production function evidenced by the log-likelihood ratio test (91.24) that was significant at 1%. Technical inefficiency accounted for 61% of the variation in output of the rice farmers. Average technical efficiency of the farmers was 0.61. Age of the farmers was positively and significantly related to their technical inefficiency; while household size, educational level, farming experience, rice variety and number of improved technologies adopted were negative and significant determinants of the farmers’ inefficiency. It was stressed that the costs of major inputs for rice production should be subsidized and adequate provision made for the farmers to have easy access to them, including agricultural credit.