ABSTRACT
The study assessed the efficient utilization of production inputs among women rice farmers in Niger State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 195 women rice farmers and data collected through structured questionnaire were analysed using frequency distribution, means, percentages, Cobb-Douglass production function and resource-use efficiency model. Results obtained show that respondents in the study area were mostly in their productive age (36 years, averagely), married (86.7%) with formal education (63.6%) and household size of 6 persons averagely. The respondents mostly utilized fertilizer ( ̅=142.6kg/ha), seed ( ̅=31.4kg/ha) and agrochemicals ( ̅=1.3 litres/ha). The farmlands were relatively small with mean of 1.2 hectares and mean labour usage of 53 man-days in rice production. The efficient utilization of production inputs was influenced by Labour (1.67), fertilizers (2.17), seed (-2.91) and agrochemicals (-1.68) with MVP to MPC ratios less than unity for land (0.31), labour (0.16) and agrochemicals (0.20), equal to unity for seed (1) and greater than unity for fertilizer application (1.5). Tobit regression analysis result on the determinants of efficient utilization of production inputs showed that formal education (2.14), household size (-2.07), extension contact (1.66), goal of farming (-1.84) and access to credit (1.72) significantly influenced efficient utilization of production inputs. The pseudo R 2 value of 0.5260, thus implying that the model had strong explanatory power for this analysis. However, women participation in rice production were constrained by high costs of production inputs ( ̅=2.64), inadequate inputs supply ( ̅=2.55), difficulty in accessing loans by women farmers ( ̅=2.53), poor transport network ( ̅=2.48), lack of transport facilities ( ̅=2.47) and pest and diseases ( ̅=2.45 ranked among the top six (6) prominent constraint faced by the women in the study area. The production resources in the study area were found not to be efficiently utilized since most of the production inputs were either over or underutilized. It is therefore recommended that for optimal use of resources in rice production, quantities of fertilizer application should be increased while land, labour and agrochemicals should be reduced.
ABSTRACT
This study sets out to investigate the impact of deposit money banks on economic development in Nigeria. Using...
ABSTRACT
The study newspaper Coverage of Crime reportage is an Analysis that is meant to examine the seriousness accorde...
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Most developing nations define industrialization as a central objective of their economic policy they see; indust...
ABSTRACT
This study examines the relationship between rewards system and employee performance in Auchi Microfinance bank...
ABSTRACT
The advent of modern communication gadget –implication for Nigerian Journalism. The tittle of this study took a vivi...
ABSTRACT
The study was conducted to analyze the profitability and resource use efficiency of cassava fa...
ABSTRACT
This research work examine effect of examination malpractice on academic performance of senior...
ABSTRACT Climate change is having a tremendous effect on our fragile ecosystem where the acceleration of its effect is believed to have occurred as...
ABSTRACT
This study focuses on the problems of poor reading habits and its consequences on the academic performance of a...
Abstract
This study is on the effect of inflation and interest rate on agricultural productivity in Nigeria. The total p...