RESOURCE UTILIZATION IN MAIZE BASED CROPPING SYSTEMS IN ONDO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study was carried out to evaluate the resource utilization of maize-based cropping systems in Ondo State, Nigeria. Copies of structured questionnaire were administered on 160 maize-based farmers randomly selected in Akoko North-East and Akoko South-West LGAs to collect data. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean, frequency distribution and percentages. There were three maize-based cropping systems in the study area which are: sole maize, maize-cassava and maize-yam cropping systems. Budgeting technique involving Gross Margin Analysis was used to determine costs, returns and profit per hectare and per maize-based farmer in the study area. Stochasticfrontier production function model of Cobb-Douglas functional form was employed to estimate resource-use efficiency and technical efficiency in the farm enterprises. From the budgeting analysis, the study revealed that the Average Gross Margin per hectare was ₦17,715.03 in sole maize cropping system, ₦53,230.76 for maize-cassava cropping system, ₦14,651 for maize-yam cropping system. In sole maize cropping pattern, the coefficients of household size, access to credit leads to increase in technical efficiency. In maize-cassava, coefficients of access to credit and farming experience leads to increase in technical efficiency as well, while in maize-yam, coefficients of educational level and household size also leads to increase in technical efficiency. Farmers in the study area were producing at about 76% efficiency in sole maize cropping system, 89% efficiency in maize-cassava cropping system, 82% efficiency in and maize-yam cropping system. The elasticity of variables inputs was 0.1772 in sole maize cropping system, 0.6099 in maize-cassava cropping system, and 0.3312 in maize-yam cropping system. This indicates that all the maize-based cropping system had decreasing return to scale; therefore, the cropping systems fell within the rational stage of production surface. The policy implication of this finding is that maize-based farmers in the study area have not attained maximum efficiency in term of their production: this is due to the presence of technical inefficiency effects in their operations. Policy attention should be directed towards provision of appropriate extension services which will enable the farmers to make adequate use of subsidized agricultural inputs such as improved seeds, agrochemicals, fertilizer, and access to credit facilities as well as labour saving technology at appropriate time to ensure increased productivity in the study area.