Resource Use Efficiency In Arable Crop Production In Oyi Local Government Area Anambra State Nigeria

ABSTRACT The study examined the resource use efficiency in arable crop production in Oyi Local Government Area of Anambra State Nigeria. Specifically the objectives were to describe the socio-economic characteristics of arable crop farmers in the study area determine system of land ownership distribution of farmers according to quantity of fertilizer used distribution of farmers according to cassava output and constraints to resource allocation to farmers. A multistage random sampling technique was used to select 84 arable crop farmers registered with the Agricultural Development Programme in the study area. Data were collected with structured questionnaire and personal interview. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequency count and percentages. While inferential statistics wasMaximum Likelihood Estimate of Stochastic Frontier Production Function using Coelli 4.1 to estimate technical efficiency. The result showed that majority 64.29 of the arable crop production were women. The farmers were in their active age literate and small-scale farmers. Majority 69.05 preferred local varieties of arable crops to improved varieties. Also majority 72.62 of the farmers were not visited by extension agents. Most of the land cultivated by the farmers were inherited and various quantities of fertilizer were applied to boost the soil fertility. Outputs of the crops were poor due to lack inadequate high cost of inputs among others. The MLE of Stochastic Frontier Production Function using Coelli 4.1 showed that the coefficient of age and sex were negative. The high MVP of farm size showed that there was high return to land which had important effect upon farm output. However the MFC showed that small-scale cassava farmers could use additional financial capital effectively to produce more output. It was therefore recommended that policies and programmes that would enable farmers to have more access to land should be put in place. Extension services need to be improved in the study area so as to educate the farmers on how to optimally allocate the use of their resources as to have meaningful harvest.