ANALYSIS OF WHEAT PRODUCTION EFFICIENCIES IN HADEJIA AND RINGIM LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS OF JIGAWA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study analyzed wheat production efficiencies in Hadejia and Ringim Local Government Areas of Jigawa State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 154 wheat farmers. Data was collected using structured questionnaire and analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed that most (92.2%) of the respondents were male while almost half (43.5%) of the respondents fell within the age bracket of 29 – 40 years with mean age 42 years and majority (80.5%) of the respondents were married with household size of 5 – 8 persons, accounting for 29.2% of the respondents with mean household of 8 persons. Also, ₦85,750.00 was realized as a revenue from the sales of 1.15 hectares of wheat with gross margin ₦50,713.00 and the return per naira invested was ₦1.53 respectively. Majority (76.0%) of the respondents agreed that use of improve seed leads technical efficiency which provides high and quality output. Stochastic production frontier revealed that application of quality fertilizer (p<0.01), access to human labour (p <0.01), and adequate herbicides (p <0.05) significantly influenced wheat production while farming experience (p<0.1) significantly influenced production efficiency of the wheat farmers while coefficient of fertilizer application (kg/ha) revealed that increase by 1%, will increase production by 0.126 %. Also, farmers' age revealed that the technical inefficiency of wheat farmers increased with age. The negative coefficient of farming experience revealed that the technical inefficiency of wheat farmers decreased with more experience. The reults further revealed that poor quality of seedlings (70.2%), poor road network (59.6%), and inadequate labour source (49.0%), limited access to financial services (48.3%) and limited access to inputs (47.0%) were the major constraints faced by the respondents in the study area. The study concluded that adoption of improve seed, use of modern practice and use of quality fertilizer will ensure technical efficiency among the wheat farmers and also wheat production can be increased significantly by adopting a number of measures. The study recommends that agricultural finance institutions should focus on provision of credit for purchase of equipment and farm inputs. This can be done through farmers’ cooperatives and other organizations at the local level. The Ministry of Agriculture, through the National Cereals and Produce Board, should import and distribute fertilizers to depots within the vicinity of farmers and introduce a price cap on the costs.