Determinants of yam production and resource use efficiency under agroforestry system in Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study was carried to determine the economics of yam production under agroforestry system in Sapoba forest area, Edo State, Nigeria. A two-stage sampling procedure was used to purposively select five villages and 12 respondents from each village engaged in food crop production under agroforestry system. About 60 farmers were thus selected from the area. Structured questionnaires were administered on the respondents to elicit answers on their socioeconomic characteristics and food production operations. Sixty farmers were selected in all. Data collected were analyzed with the aid of descriptive statistics, Cobb-Douglas production function was used to estimate the coefficients of the various variables analyzed. MPP, MVP and allocative efficiency index were used to estimate the efficiency of resource use in the study area. The results showed that farm size, yam seed and years of farming were significantly positive to yam production in the area. The results of the efficiency estimation, however, indicated that farm size (1.55), yam seed (1.5) were underutilized while hired labour (0.24), hoes (0.46) and machetes (0.32) were over-utilized. The regression also showed that the farmers were in the first stage of production which is increasing return to scale (using the elasticities). The study therefore recommends that to ensure the restoration of our forest, farmers should be encouraged to adopt agroforestry as a farming system. Farmers should also be encouraged to increase their productivity and, by extension, profit through the provision of improved yam seeds and given the opportunity for plot expansion. They should also maximize the utilization of the farm land by increasing the number of yam sett planted per hectare.

Keywords: Efficiency, agroforestry, yam, production function, Sapoba forest area