Abstract:
The study examined the efficiency of yam production in Akoko North East, Akure South, Owo and Ondo West Local Government Areas of Ondo State, Nigeria. Primary data were collected from 160 yam farmers with the aid of structured questionnaire assisted with interview schedule. The farmers were selected using multistage sampling technique. The analytical techniques used in the study included descriptive statistics, Gross Margin and Stochastic Frontier Production Function analyses.
The results of the socio- economic analysis showed that the yam farmers were young with low education and quite experienced. The stochastic frontier production function analysis showed that the coefficients of farm size, labour operating expenses yam sets and age were positive and had direct relationship with the farm output., and significant at 5% level of significance except labour and age. The return to scale (RTS) of yam production was greater than unity (1.269) implying that yam production was in stage I of the production surface. The state of irrational stage in the production surface.
The results of the 'Technical Efficiency indicate the presence of technical inefficiency effects in yam production with technical inefficiency effects accounting for about 97 percent of variation in the output of yam of the sampled farms. The Technical Efficiency varied between 0.35 and 0.99 with a mean Technical Efficiency of 0,91 and thus showed that the yam farmers were relatively technically efficient with about 94 percent of the sampled yam farmers having TE above 0.80. It was also observed that only type of farming (adoption of sole cropping of yam) significantly increased Technical Efficiency while other socio-economic characteristics in the inefficiency model decreased Technical Efficiency of the yam farmers.
