Resource Productivity Analysis of Small Scale Root and Tuber Crop Farmers in Niger State, Nigeria

The study examined resource productivity analysis of small scale root and tuber crop farmers in Niger State, Nigeria. Data used for the study were obtained from primary source using a multi-stage sampling technique with structured questionnaires administered to 150 randomly selected root and tuber crop farmers from the study area. Descriptive statistics such as means, standard deviations, frequency distribution table and percentages were used to summarize the variables used in the analysis while data envelopment analysis was used to empirically determine the resource productivity in the study area. The DEA result on the overall technical efficiency of the farmers showed that 6% of the sampled root and tuber crop farmers in the study area were operating at frontier and optimum level of production with mean technical efficiency of 1.00. Decomposition of technical efficiency also showed mean efficiency scores of 0.25 and 0.32 for overall technical efficiency and scale efficiency respectively meaning that, on average, the sampled farms were more scale efficient than they are technically efficient. The study further revealed that most of the farms could reduce total expenditures on the farm land, labour, planting material, agrochemical, fertilizer and capital inputs by 8.17%, 5.17%, 29.53%, 23.71%, 0.09% and 10.08%, respectively without reducing their current level of production. The study therefore recommended that root and tuber crop farmers in the study area should form cooperative societies so as to enable them have access to productive inputs that will enable them expand. This will as well increase efficiency of resource utilization. Also, since few farms were robustly efficient, the farmers in the study area, enhanced research, extension delivery and farm advisory services should be put in place for farmers to learn the best farm practices carried out on the robustly efficient farms. This will go a long way to increase the efficiency level of the farmers in the study area.