Analysis of the Factors Influencing the Technical Efficiency of Women Rubber Tappers in the Rubber belt of Nigeria

Abstract

The study analyzed the relationship between technical efficiency of women rubber tappers in Rubber Research Institute of Nigeria, Benin City. A total of 60 women were selected through purposive and random sampling techniques and served with a structured interview schedule. Data collected were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics. Results of the analysis indicated that women tappers had a mean age of 33 years, have large family sizes, experienced and tapped a mean of 326 trees/ha with a mean annual output of 2,723 kg of dry rubber. Production function analysis further revealed that 91.40 % of the variations in technical efficiency were explained by the variations in socio - economic variables. Output, family size, education, man days of labour, total trees tapped and wage had positive and significant effect on the technical efficiency of women tappers. It is however recommended that increasing wage, access to quality education will enhance their production efficiency.

Keywords: Technical efficiency, women, tapping, rubber belt, production function

Gender & Behaviour, 10(2), December 2012