Assessment of allocative efficiency of resources for yam production in Afikpo North, Nigeria

Abstract

This study assessed the allocative efficiency of resources used in yam production in the Afikpo North Local Government Area of Ebonyi State for sustainable management. A multistage random sampling technique was used to select 90 yam farmers. Descriptive statistics, regression, and gross margin were used for the analysis. The result showed that 88.8% were within the age range of 30-49 years, as 56.7% were males, while 51.1% were married, 55.5% of the yam farmers had above 16 years of experience, and 55.6% perceived that hiring of labour is their major source with a farm size of 1.5-1.8 ha, as perceived by 53.3% of the yam farmers. The result further showed that the Cob-Douglas functional form gave the best fit, and the value of the coefficient of multiple determination (R²) was 0.5768, which implied that 57.68% of the variations in the profitability of yam production were accounted for by the explanatory variables, such as fertilizer, insecticide, herbicide, mini-sett, hired labour, family labour and farm size, which were estimated. The result of estimated allocative efficiency levels of the inputs used showed that fertilizer, insecticide, mini-sett, hired labour, family labour and farm size were all overutilized, indicating inefficiency in resource use. Also, 88.9% of the respondents indicated that lack of capital was the major challenge they face, while 83.3% of the respondents perceived lack of improved varieties as a constraint. The findings recommended that affordable labour-saving farm tools to reduce production costs should be developed and distributed and provide farmers with affordable credit at low interest rates and flexible collateral requirements.