Technical Efficiency of Small-holder Sweetpotato Farmers in Southeast Agro-ecological Zone of Nigeria

Abstract

The paper investigated the level of technical efficiency and its determinants in sweetpotato production in South-East agro-ecological zone of Nigeria. A multistage random sampling technique was used in the selection of states and respondents. Two states, Abia and Enugu were randomly selected from the five states of south-east agro-ecological zone (Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States). 120 respondents were randomly selected (60 respondents from each state). Data collecting instrument was a well-structured questionnaire. Stochastic frontier production function was used to analyze the data. The result of the maximum likelihood estimate shows that labour (1 percent), fertilizer (10 percent), capital input (1%) and farm size (10%) were significant and contributing factors to the output of sweetpotato farmers. The result of the scholastic frontier estimate reveals that the value of total variance and variance ratio were significant at 1 percent with the values of 0.4040 and 0.5464 respectively. The maximum technical efficiency computed was 0.93; the minimum was 0.27 while the mean was 0.80.This implies that the farmers are technically in-efficient in resource allocation. Determinants of technical efficiency include; age, farm size, extension visit and farming experience were significant at varied risk levels. The results call for policies aimed at empowering the extension agents to enhance technology dissemination and transfer. Also, farmers, especially the younger ones are to be assisted in terms of capital input in order to boost productivity and increase efficiency.