The Influence of Crop Production Intensification on Technical Efficiency of Maize-Based Farming Households in Kwara State, Nigeria.

Abstract

EfficiencyAnalysis is an issue ofinterest among economists in recent times, given that the overall productivity of an economic system is directly related to the efficiency of production of the components within the system. Thus, this study examined crop production intensification and technical efficiency ofmaize-based farming households in Kwara State, Nigeria. Data used for this study were obtained using structured questionnaire administered to 144 randomly selected maize-based farming households in Kwara state. The stochastic frontier production function methodology was used to empirically determine the level of technical efficiency of maize-based farming households as well as the factors that influence the efficiency. Given the specification ofa Cobb-Douglass stochastic production function, in which the technical inefficiency effects are specified to be functions of several explanatory variables, the inefficiency effects of  of the sampled households varied widely, ranging from 11.0% to 99.9%, with a mean value of39.3%. Farming households were generally relatively not efficient, they still have room to increase the efficiency in their farming activities as about 60.7% efficiency gap from the optimum (100%) remains yet to be attained by all Kwara state maize-based farming households. Therefore, in the short run there is room for increase in technical efficiency of maize-based households in the study area. Farming experience, household size, credit access and crop production intensification were factors found significant in influencing the level oftechnical efficiency of Kwara state maize-based households.