ECONOMICS OF SESAME PRODUCTION IN MISAU LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF BAUCHI STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study was undertaken to examine economics of sesame production in Misau Local Government Area of Bauchi State, Nigeria. Data used for the study were obtained using structured questionnaire administered to 133 randomly selected small scale sesame farmers in the two districts within 16 village areas in the local government area in 2012 farming season. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, gross margin analysis and stochastic frontier production function. The result from the gross margin analysis revealed that, farm labour was the most important cost item accounting for 77.42% of the total cost of sesame production. The gross margin of N40,226.62/ha was obtained. Findings from the stochastic frontier revealed that technical efficiency of the farmers varied from 0.82 to 0.99 with mean value of 0.91 indicating room for farm efficiency improvement by 9.0%. The major contributing factors to inefficiency were age and extension contact. Based on the findings of this work, it is recommends that the amount of farm labour should be increased even at higher price, farm size should be increased at reduced price and fertilizer should be increased at prevailing market price so as to increase the efficiency status of the sesame producers.