TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF SMALL-SCALE COWPEA PRODUCTION IN BALI AND GASSOL LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS OF TARABA STATE

Abstract

The study examined the technical efficiency of small-scale cowpea production in Bali and Gassol Local Government Areas of Taraba State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to; describe the socio-economic characteristics of cowpea farmers in the study area; estimate the technical efficiency of cowpea production and identify the underlying factors influencing technical inefficiency of the farmers. A multi-stage sampling procedure was adopted. Primary data were collected from the farmers through the use of a structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, Stochastic Frontier production function and Gross Margin were used for the analysis of the data. The mean age of the farmers to be 33years, the majority (97.2%) of the farmers had some form of education. The average household size was eight persons, while majority (62.94%) of the farmers were not members of a cooperative society. Majority (55.94%) of the farmers had farm size of two or
less hectares. The parameters of the stochastic frontier production function revealed that farm size, seed, labour and agrochemical were statistically significant at 1 and 5% levels. The mean technical efficiency was 87%. Also, age, farm size, farming experience, educational level, cooperative association and extension contact were the socio-economic variables that influence technical efficiency of the farmers. However, gender, access to credit and household size were found to be the sources of technical inefficiency of the farmers. It was recommended that farmers should be encouraged to join cooperative society and extension
services agents should intensify their efforts in training and mobilizing farmers for improved production of cowpea.