Farm Size, Land Tenure Systems and Technical Efficiency of Maize Farmers in Ogbomoso Agricultural Zone of Oyo State

Abstract

The study was designed to provide an empirical measure of association between land tenure, farm size and Economic efficiency of maize farmers in Ogbomoso Agricultural Zone in Oyo State. The specific objectives are to identify the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, to determine the size and tenure effect on efficiency, determine efficiency of maize farmers and to estimate the determinant of efficiency among farmers. Structured questionnaire was utilized to collect the relevant data from a sample of 150 farmers within the study areas using multi stage sampling techniques. Out of the 150 copies of questionnaire, 125 were collected and analysed by descriptive statistics and non-parametric techniques

. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) and Tobit were employed to determine the efficiency and to estimate the determinant of efficiency among farmers. The results show that most of the farmers are within the age range of 51 years and above; majority of the farmers (96.8%) are married and about 79.2% have formal education. The results also revealed that 92% of the farmers have farming experience of 11 years and above; the household size of 3 or less 18.4% accounts for the respondents. Problem faced by the farmers are the low number of the extension agents as 72.8% of the respondence were not visited at all by the extension agents. The DEA reveals that there is significant difference between mean technical efficiency of farmers operating under different land tenure systems. . The technical efficiency result suggested that farmers who inherited the land holdings have 51% potential to increase their production and renter 62% while farmers who purchased their land have 19% potential of increasing their production. .

The Tobit model obtained by maximum likehood estimate revealed that the explanatory variables fitted in the model have significant impact on technical indexes. Farm size, chemical inputs, year of experience credit availability were significant at 1% while extensions was significant at 5%.

Keywords : Landtenure ,technical efficiency,farmsize,DEA,Tobit