Project Abstract

<p>                   <b> ABSTRACT</b></p><p>&nbsp;Using a cross sectional data obtained through a multistage sampling technique, this study estimated the technical efficiency of Ginger crop production in Jaba Local Government Area, Kaduna State, Nigeria and further examined the factors that determined the differential in efficiency index. A total of 78 Ginger crop farmers in the study area were randomly selected for the study. The stochastic frontier production model was used in the analysis to determine the relationship between output and the level of input used in the study area. The empirical results revealed that farm size,. Planting materials, fertilizers and hired labour were statistically significant at 5% level while chemicals and family babour were not statistically significant. The estimated gamma parameters (γ) of 0.37 indicated that 37% of the total variation in total output was due to technical inefficiencies of the respondents. The mean technical efficiencies (χ) level was 0.68. It was therefore concluded that there is scope for increasing the technical efficiency of ginger crops production by 0.68% with the present technology. Therefore the study confirmed that increased land, planting material, fertilizer and hired labour can be used in the area by the farmers in ginger production. Key words Technical efficiency, Ginger production, stochastic production frontier. <br></p>

Project Overview

<p> INTRODUCTION&nbsp;</p><p>Nigeria is basically an agrarian economy with about 85% of the population depending on agriculture. Agriculture has the highest poverty incidence rate (62.7%) among all occupational groups considered in the Nigerian Living Standard Survey (FOS, 2004). A high proportion (48.3%) of Nigeria’s active population is involved in agriculture and this group also has the highest poverty dept (26.1%) and severity respectively. These poor outcomes were attributed to low productivity, poor agricultural produce price; hence poor farm income, inadequate infrastructure and limited access to credit and improved farm inputs (1) Ginger is a herbaceous perennial grown as an annual for its spicy underground rhizomesor stems. The plant has fibrous roots that emerge from the branches rhizomes. It takes about 6 weeks for shoots to emerge after ginger planted. Vegetative growth is maximized until flowering begins in September – October flowering marks the beginning of rhizomes maturity and increasing fibrous tissue development(2). Nigeria produces an average of 50,000 metric tonnes of fresh weight ginger per annum(3) . About 10% of the produce is consumed locally as fresh ginger while the remaining 90% is dried for both local consumption and export. According to(3), 20% of the dried ginger is consumed locally for various use s and 80% is exported. Traditionally, ginger is used in Nigeria for both medicinal and culinary (kitchen) purposes as well as in confectionery industry. Ginger (Zingiber officinale) belongs to the family of Zingiberaceae. It is a slender perennial plant with thick and branched underground stem (rhizome). It is a spice grown across many climates in the world.&nbsp;</p><p>Ginger is likely to have originated from India, where it is being cultivated in commercial level(4). Ginger was introduced to Africa and the Caribbean by the colonial masters; and it is now cultivated throughout the humid tropics. Itgot to Nigeria in 1927 and its cultivation started around Kwoi, Kubacha, Kafanchan and Kagarko areas of southern Kaduna State and around the neighbouring parts of Plateau State(5). In recent times, ginger cultivation has been introduced into south eastern and south western agricultural zones of Nigeria. Worldwide over 25 varieties of ginger are grown. Most varieties have not been properly characterized. Varieties differs in size of the rhizome, flavour, aroma, colour and fibre content. Ginger is throughout the world as a spice or fresh herb I cooking and a range of other value added products including flavouring in candies, beverages. Ginger is also used in traditional medicine to treat several ailments like option sickness. Young rhizomes that harvested early are also used in pickles and confectionary. Nigeria was among the countries that the global production of ginger in 2008 was over 1.4 million metric tons (MT) and the major exporting country to US in 2007. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (6). There are two major varieties of ginger grown in Nigeria which differ in the colour of their rhizomes namely, the reddish and yellow varieties. The yellow variety appears to be widely planted than the reddish variety. According to (7), the various cultivars available include UG1, UG2 and Maran. The UG1 (locally called Tafin giwa meaning elephant’s foot type) yield higher than UG2 (Yatsun biri meaning monkey’s finger type) which was reported to be more pungent. Ginger is usually cultivated vegetatively through its rhizome. Modern micro propagation is also being used where new plants are cloned from cells taken from a plant. The crop requires a good soil tilled for production of well shaped rhizomes (8). In southern Kaduna where ginger is extensively grown in Nigeria, beds are preferred for rain fed ginger production while planting on ridges is recommended for irrigated ginger. (8) recommended that rhizome for planting be cut into small pieces, each having at least 2 good buds or growing points and weigh 5 - 10 g. The recommended planting depth is 4 - 5 cm and distance of 20 by 20 cm to give a plant population of 250,000/ ha. It is expected that ginger should be planted early, March/April in the rainforest zone and April/May in the savannah zone of Nigeria to have enough rain for its 7 - 8 months of field life.</p><p> <b>MATERIALS AND METHODS&nbsp;</b></p><p><b><i>The study area&nbsp;</i></b></p><p>The study was conducted in Jaba local government area. It lies between latitude 9oN and longitude 8oE. The local government shares boundaries with Zango Kataf local government area in the North, in the East by Jema’a Local government area, in the West by Kachia local government area and in the south by Kagarko and Nassarawa State. The population of Kaduna State is 6,066,562 people according to 2006 census and the population of Jaba is 61,000 people according to(9).&nbsp;</p><p>The local government is marked with distinct dry and wet seasons. The dry season is between November to March while the wet season fall between April – October. The vegetation of the area of study is guinea savannah. The major occupation of the inhabitants of the local government is farming. Majority of the farmers practice small-scale agriculture and other occupation involved in, include fishing, hunting weaving, trading and many others etc. Jaba local government area is endowned with abundant natural resources such as hills, streams, natural grass land, dam and economic trees. Crops grown in the area include: sorghum, millet, maize, yam, rice, cocoyam, groundnut, acha, beans, ginger, cassava, soya bean, sweet potatoes, Beni-seed and sugar cane. During the dry season, farmers in Jaba local government area are involved in the production of vegetables such as cabbage, spinach, tomatoes and pepper.&nbsp;</p><p><b><i>Sources of data and sampling procedure</i></b>&nbsp;</p><p>A multistage sampling technique was used for this study. This included a purposive random selection of two local Government areas from the entire local governments in the state who are the major ginger producing areas.&nbsp;</p><p>From these two Local Governments, Jaba Local Government area being the highest ginger producing of the two was selected for this srudy. Jabba Local Government area is consists of fifteen districts from which 5 was randomly selected. Eighty five questionnaires were randomly distributed among these Five wards which are Nok, Fada, daddu, Chori, and Forgye. Primary data was collected from farmers through a set of structured questionnaires which was administered to ginger producing Farmers in the study area. The questionnaire was designed to elicit relevant information necessary to enable the stated objectives to be achieved which include socio-economic characteristics of ginger farmers, production variables which include farm size, labour, planting stock, land preparation, fertilizer application, &nbsp; weeding, harvesting, processing, storage and also&nbsp; the cost involved in carrying out the various operations as well as the economic return per hectare per annum. </p><p> Analytical technique The stochastic production function model was adopted for the study and is specified as follows: Yi = f (Xi , β) + εi …………………………………………………………………………(i)&nbsp;</p><p>εi = (Vi-Ui)&nbsp;</p><p>Where Yi is output, Xi is input, β is a vector of parameter to be estimated. The disturbance term εi consist of two components Vi and Ui where Vi=N(0, σ v2) and Ui is a one sided error term. The two errors Vi and Ui are assumed to be independently distributed. The term Vi is the symmetrical component and permits random variation of production across farms; while it also captures factors outside the control of the farmer. A one-sided component (Ui ≥ 0) reflects technical efficiency relative to the stochastic frontier. If Ui = 0, production lies on the frontier. If Ui &gt; 0, production lies below the frontier and is inefficient. Following(10), the Technical Efficiency (TE) of the individual farmer is calculated as the expected values of Vi conditional on εi = Vi-Ui . Technical efficiency is then calculated as:&nbsp;</p><p>TE= exp (− ε/Ui) ; ……………………………………….……………………………..(2)&nbsp;</p><p>So that 0 ≤ TE ≤ 1.&nbsp;</p><p>The empirical model of the stochastic production frontier is specified as;</p><p>&nbsp;LnQi=Lnβ0 + β1LnX1+ β2LnX2+ β3LnX3+ β4LnX4+ β5LnX5+ β6LnX6+ Vi-Ui………….(3)</p><p> Where;&nbsp;</p><p>Qi = Total value of farm output (in Naira) from i-th farm.&nbsp;</p><p>X1= Farm size in hectares (Ha)&nbsp;</p><p>X2 = Seed/planting materials (Kg).&nbsp;</p><p>X3=Quantity of Fertilizers used in kilograms (Kg)&nbsp;</p><p>X4 = Quantity of chemicals used (Kg)&nbsp;</p><p>X5=Family labour (Mandays)&nbsp;</p><p>X6= Hired Labour (Ha)&nbsp;</p><p>β0 = intercept&nbsp;</p><p>β ij =vector of production function parameters to be estimated</p><p>&nbsp;i=1, 2, 3,…,n farms;&nbsp;</p><p>j=1, 2, 3… m inputs.&nbsp;</p><p>vi = random variability in the production that cannot be influenced by the farmer.&nbsp;</p><p>µi = the deviation from maximum potential output attributable to technical inefficiency.&nbsp;</p><p>The variance of the random error
v 2 and that of the technical inefficiency effect u 2 and the overall variance of the model are related as follows:-&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;2 =v 2+u 2…………………………………………………………………………..…….(4)&nbsp;</p><p>=u 2 /δ 2 ………………………………………...………………………………………….(5)&nbsp;</p><p>Equation (5) measures the total variation of production (output) from the frontier which can be attributed to technical or allocative inefficiency (11).The 2 and , coefficients are the diagnostic statistics that indicate the relevance of the use of the stochastic frontier function and the correctness of the assumptions made on the distribution form of the error term.&nbsp;</p>