Analysis of Technical Efficiency and Constraints to Small Holder Heliculture Farming in Ovia South West Local Government Area, Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Heliculture by rural households is becoming popular due to the necessity of income diversification and reducing decency on monoculture. This paper therefore examined the technical efficiency and constraints to snail production by smallholder farmers in Ovia south West Local Government Area Edo State, Nigeria, using appropriate techniques with 90 responses. The result shown that most (51.11%) of the farmers were females, with age brackets of 31 – 40 years, with a mean farm experience of 3 years respectively. Result further shown that most (46.7%) of the farmers had secondary education and household size of between 6 – 10 persons with a stock size of between 10 – 100 snails respectively. Most (Labour, feeds, fixed asset and stock size) contributed respectively to the output of farmers with a mean efficiency score of 0.903, indicating existence of efficiency gap. Education level and farming experience contributed significantly to the efficiency of the farmers but the farmers were constrained mostly by inadequate credit, dearth of stable market price, bad weather, and disease infestation in the study area. Policy makers and stakeholders could encourage women and youth participation.