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Efficiency of resource-use
and elasticity of production among catfish farmers in Kaduna,
Nigeria
C. O. Emokaro* and P. A.
Ekunwe
Department of Agriculture, Benson Idahosa University, Benin
City, Nigeria.
*Corresponding author. E-mail:
emokaro@yahoo.com or
peter_ekunwe@yahoo.com.
Accepted
24 October, 2008 |
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This study
employed the use of the Stochastic Frontier Production
Function in the empirical analysis of efficiency of
resource-use and elasticity of production among catfish
farmers in Kaduna, Nigeria. The simple random sampling
technique was employed in selecting 60 catfish farmers drawn
from the sampling frame obtained from the list of list of
Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) contact farmers in
the four Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Chikun, Igabi,
Kaduna and Kaduna North, which made up the study area.
Empirical estimates from the analysis showed Marginal
Physical Product (MPP) values ranged from -430.850 for
catfish feed to 1.004 for labour. It was equally established
in this study that catfish farmers in the study area were
not efficient in their use of production inputs, based on
VMPi/Pxi ratios that ranged from -426.71 for catfish feed to
3.46 for labour, with none approximating to unity (which
would have indicated that the farmers were optimally
efficient in their use of production inputs). Also,
production elasticity estimates indicated that the farmers
were in stage 2 of the production process, with a return to
scale of 0.664. These estimates indicate the existence of
intervention points for relevant stakeholders in the
bourgeoning catfish business in Kaduna.
Key
words:
Efficiency of resource-use, food crisis, elasticity of
production, maximum likelihood estimates, ordinary least
squares, return to scale, stochastic frontier production
function. |
