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Measurement of scale efficiency in ginger farms in Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria: non-parametric model approach
Abstract
The study was carried out to measure scale efficiency among ginger farmers in Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State. A two stage sampling techniques was used to select 99 ginger farmers from whom the data for the study were collected. Data were analyzed using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and descriptive statistics. Results show that the mean values of overall TE, Pure TE and scale efficiency were 0.718, 0.804 and 0.898 respectively. Only 14 % the farms were operating on the optimal scale. While about 86% of the farms were experiencing scale inefficiency (sub-optimal scale), consisting of 47% of the farms revealing increasing return to scale and 38% exhibiting decreasing returns to scale. Therefore, it is recommended that for realization of optimal production scale in the study area, farmers operating at inefficient production scale should be encouraged to either increase farm size to address scale inefficiency from IRS, or decrease farm size to remedy scale inefficiency due to DRS.
Keywords: Ginger farms, scale efficiency and DEA