Economics of Small Ruminant Production under Different Healthcare System: A Stochastic Meta-frontier Approach

Prior use of the stochastic frontier model and subsequent measurement of performance of the agricultural produce sector, which relies on the presumption that the underlying technology is the same for all the different agricultural systems is not adequate as heterogeneity does exist in most agricultural production environments and failure to account for this, is likely to result in biased production frontier and efficiency. This study contributed to the existing knowledge, estimating technical efficiency and the technological gap in Nigerian Small Ruminant farms using the stochastic meta-frontier approach. For this study, we classified the farms based on the different production technologies adopted. The result of the analysis shows that farms differ in performance and technology use with the farms engaging both orthodox and traditional animal healthcare technologies having the highest efficiency. Furthermore, the results prove support for specific agricultural policies targeted at increasing the performance of indigenous technology in the livestock industry for better productivity and the prosperity of Nigeria.