Income and Factor Analysis of Watermelon Production in Ekiti State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the income and factor productivity in watermelon production in Ekiti State, Nigeria. A multi stage sampling technique was used to select a total of 90 respondents for the study. Data were obtained with the aid of a pre tested structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics was used to describe and categorize the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, Gross margin analysis was used to analyze the cost and returns to watermelon production and Cobb Douglas production function was used to evaluate the input factor productivity. Results showed that the farmers are relatively young with average age of 33.16 years with a sizable number of the respondents (33.33%) having passed through tertiary education. It was also observed that the farmers are typically smallholders with average farm size of 1.11ha. The result of the gross margin analysis showed that watermelon production is profitable with a gross margin of N138, 044:22 per hectare. The result of the Cobb Douglas production function shows that the coefficients of cost of fertilizer (0.7081) and cost of agrochemicals (0.5117) were positively significant at 5%, while the coefficient of labour was negative (-0.2041) and significant at 10%. The overall factor productivity index is 1.14 implying an increasing return to scale in water melon production in the study area. However, lack of capital was identified as a major production constraint.

Keywords: Income, factor productivity, gross margin, Cobb Douglas function, smallholders and return to scale