Determinants of the revenue and productivity of Fadama farmers in Imo state

Abstract

The study identified the determinants of net revenue and productivity of the resources used by fadama farmers in Imo State. A multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select 24 respondents from 2 agricultural zones. Descriptive statistics and regression model were used to analyze the data. The results showed that the relationship between each of the inputs and the net revenue was inelastic for the farmers. However, labor, farm size, planting materials, cost of fertilizer and amount of water used significantly influenced net revenue of the farmers. The result shows further that maize was the most productive planting material while land clearing was the most productive labor used by the farmers. Farm size was also found to be the most allocatively efficient resource while water was the most allocatively inefficient resource of the farmers. It was also identified that four out of the six inputs used in production were used above their economic optimum levels. The major constraints of the farmers include high cost of production, poor irrigation facilities and small farm size.

Keywords: Farmers; fadama; revenue; Nigeria

International Journal of Natural and Applied Sciences Vol. 2 (3) 2006: pp. 255-261