Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 24 ISSUE 1
Written by Abdu Karniliyus TASHIKALMA, Dengle Yuniyus GIROH

Resource allocation and productivity are important aspect of increased food production which is also associated with the management of the farmers who employ these resources in production. Furthermore, efficiency in the use of available resources is a major pivot for profitable farm enterprise and sustainability. Therefore, inefficiency in the use of resources, wrong choice of enterprise combination and cropping system constitute the major constraints to increased food production in Nigeria. Adamawa State has favourable ecology for both rainfed and irrigated maize production, but the increasing demand for maize lags behind supplies. This study was therefore conducted to examine Productivity and Efficiency of Maize (Zea mays) Farmers in Adamawa State. Socio- economic characteristics of respondents; allocative, technical and economic efficiencies of maize production and factors of inefficiencies of production among respondents were specifically examined . Data were collected from 337 maize farmers and subjected to descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Results showed that respondents had a mean age of 44 years, attained one form of formal education or the other with mean of nine years of schooling, mean household size of eight people, well experienced with mean experience of 21 years and mostly small scale farmers cultivating an average of 1.89 hectares. The stochastic production frontier analysis indicated that 84.01% of the variations in the technical efficiencies were jointly explained by the production variables in the model. Seeds, fertilizers and farm size were statistically significant (p≤0.01) and positively related with maize output. Education and extension contact were statistically significant (p≤0.05) and increase technical efficiency among respondents. Furthermore, the stochastic cost function analysis indicated that 80.24% variations in allocative efficiencies were as a result of the variables included in the model. Cost of fertilizers, seeds and herbicides were statistically significantly (p≤0.01) whereas labour was statistically significant (p≤0.10). Extension contacts increase allocative efficiency significantly. The mean values obtained were 0.79, 0.88 and 0.69 for Technical Efficiency (TE), Allocative Efficiency (AE) and Economic Efficiency (EE) respectively. High cost of inputs, inadequate credit facilities, Striga infestation and drought were the major constraints of maize production. It is concluded that farmers are not fully efficient in the allocation of resources for production. Formation of cooperative association by farmers and training of farmers by both government and non governmental agencies were some of the recommendations made i the study.

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