Technical efficiency of agroforestry production technology among smallholder farmers in Kaduna State, Nigeria

Authors : Olugbenga Omotayo ALABI, Godbless Friday SAFUGHA

Pages : 362-373

Doi:10.31015/jaefs.2023.2.15

View : 55 | Download : 58

Publication Date : 2023-06-29

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This study evaluated technical efficiency of agroforestry production technology among smallholder farmers in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling technique was adopted. A total sample size of 120 smallholder agroforestry farmers was used. Primary data were collected with the aid of structured and well-designed questionnaire. Analytical tools used were: descriptive statistics, farm budgeting techniques, financial analysis, stochastic production frontier model, and principal component model. About 85% of agroforestry farmers were male, while 15% were female. Also, 87.50% of agroforestry farmers were less than 50 years of age. The mean age was 45 years. Furthermore, 85% of agroforestry farmers had formal education and were literate. The household sizes were large with mean value of 6 members per household. The agroforestry systems practiced include: alley farming, shelterbelts, wind breaks, home gardens, api-silviculture, aqua-forestry, retaining tree on farm land, taungya systems, farmed parkland, and silvo-pasture. The result of the farm budgetary technique show that agroforestry farming was profitable among the smallholder farmers in the study area. The result of the maximum likelihood estimates shows that the significant factors influencing output of agroforestry production technology were: seed input insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(P<0.05);, farm size input insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(P<0.01);, fertilizer input insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(P<0.10);, labour input insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(P<0.10);, and chemical input insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(P<0.01);. The significant factors influencing technical inefficiency of agroforestry production technology were: gender insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(P<0.10);, marital status insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(P<0.01);, education level insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(P<0.01);, experience in agroforestry production insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(P<0.01); and size of households insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(P<0.10);. The average technical efficiency score obtained by the smallholder agroforestry farmers was 40.18%. The constraints facing agroforestry farmers include: lack of training and capacity building, inadequate extension officers, lack of improved seeds, lack of credit facilities, lack of fertilizers, and lack of agroforestry tree seedlings. The study recommends that agroforestry tree seedlings should be made available to farmers, credit facilities should be provided for easy access to agroforestry production technologies, extension officers should be employed, and improved seeds, fertilizers should be provided for increased productivity.
Keywords : Technical Efficiency, Agroforestry Production Technology, Kaduna State, Nigeria

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