ECONOMICS OF MILLET PRODUCTION UNDER DIFFERENT CROPPING SYSTEMS IN BORNO STATE OF NIGERIA
ECONOMICS OF MILLET PRODUCTION UNDER DIFFERENT CROPPING SYSTEMS IN BORNO STATE OF NIGERIA
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Date
2000-04
Authors
IHEANACHO, ANDREW CHIKAODI
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Abstract
The purpose of the study was to determine the economics of millet production under different
cropping systems in Borno State of Nigeria. The specific objectives were to identify the socioeconomic
characteristics of the millet growing farmers; determine the resource use in the cropping
systems; determine the relationship between socio-economic variables and agricultural outputs of
the farmers; determine differences in cost and returns among millet crop mixtures; estimate
production functions for millet cropping systems; compare relative importance and resource use
efficiency of common resources used in millet crop mixtures; and identify the major technical and
socio-economic problems of the millet growing farmers.
Data for the study were collected using questionnaire and interview schedules administered
to 180 farmers growing millet in mixtures. Thirty six (36) farmers were randomly selected from
each of the stratum of the five major millet crop mixtures grown in the study area, namely;
millet/sorghum, millet/cowpea, millet/groundnut, millet/sorghum/cowpea and
millet/sorghum/groundnut. Analysis of data was achieved by means of simple descriptive statistics,
gross margin analysis, multiple regression, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and chi-square statistic
(X2).
The major findings of the study indicate that educational level of the farmers, resident
household size and number of extension workers visits were the major socio-economic variables
which positively and significantly affected their outputs as indicated by the linear regression model.
Age and farming experience were inversely related to output. Millet/cowpea mixture was the most
profitable, with gross margin of N20,689.03. Food security objective, however, was the major
reason for growing millet in mixtures.
The semi-log production function gave the best fit for the millet-based cropping systems.
Farm size was significant at 5% in all the cropping systems, except millet/groundnut. Except for
millet/sorghum mixture, seed rate was found to be significant in all the crop mixtures. Fertilizer
was insignificant at 5% in all the mixtures, while labour was insignificant in millet/sorghum/cowpea
and millet/sorghum/groundnut production. A measure of the relative importance of the resources
in production shows that land ranked first in all the mixtures, except in millet/groundnut where it
ranked second, perhaps due to the extensive rather than intensive land use in peasant agriculture.
Comparison of economic efficiency of resource use based on the ratio of the marginal value product
(MVP) and marginal factor cost (MFC) indicates that all the inputs were under-utilized, in all the
cropping systems. Millet/cowpea mixture had the highest return to scale (2.93), followed by
millet/groundnut mixture (2.92), both exhibiting increasing return to scale. This implies that 1%
increase in the set of inputs for millet/cowpea and millet/groundnut mixtures would increase output
by 2.93 and 2.92 percent respectively. High cost of inputs was ranked as the most important
agronomic problem by 50% of the farmers. This was followed by lack of finance, soil infertility,
drought and erosion. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that farm support and
tractor of animal traction services aimed at supplying adequate inputs and labour should be rendered
to the farmers, while the extension service should be revitalised to ensure more visits to them. The
use of organic manure to complement artificial fertilizer should be encouraged and dry planting
(sene) discouraged to reduce losses due to drought.
Description
A Dissertation submitted to the Postgraduate School, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in Partial
Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Agricultural
Economics
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS AND RURAL SOCIOLOGY,
FACULTY OF AGRICULTURE, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA.
April, 2000
Keywords
ECONOMICS,, MILLET,, PRODUCTION,, DIFFERENT,, CROPPING,, SYSTEMS,, BORNO STATE,, NIGERIA.