Measurement of Technical Efficiency of Small Scale Farmers under the Growth Enhancement Scheme in Oyo State, Nigeria Measurement of Technical Efficiency of Small Scale Farmers under the Growth Enhancement Scheme in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the technical efficiency of small-scale farmers under the growth enhancement scheme in Egbeda and Surulere Local Government Areas of Oyo State. Multistage sampling technique was used in the random selection of 250 respondents using copies of a structured questionnaire. The result of average input used of respondents was farm size (1.59ha), labor used (23 man-days), seed (30 kg), years of education (6.23 years), fertilizer (259.69 kg), and seasonal extension contact (7) while the average input per farm was 4,162.89 kg. Efficiency of farmers was influenced by the significant input variables such as farm size (3.3749), fertilizer (0.2094), and experience were significant at 1% while years of education (0.6038) and agrochemicals (0.0846) were significant at 1% and 10%, respectively. The distribution of efficiency score showed that farms within the range of 0.81–0.90 were highest with 62.4%. It was, therefore, recommended that policy that will stimulate more extension services and labor availability to improve on output.