Determinant of Cost Efficiency in Cowpea Production: A Case Study of Adamawa State, Nigeria

The study evaluates the allocative efficiency of cowpea production in Adamawa State, Nigeria. Data were collected from 250 farmers using purposive and simple random sampling with aid of structured schedule. The result of the stochastic frontier production function analysis shows that the variance parameters, that is the sigma squared (2) and the gamma () were statistically significant at 1 % level for cowpea production. The coefficient of farm size, labour, seed and chemical were positive and significant at 1 %, 5 % and 10 % levels while fertilizer was not significant. Profit level can be increased by increasing the amount of farm size quantity of seed, labour and chemical and decreasing the use of fertilizer. Mean efficiency was 0.66; Farmers operate at 34 % below frontier level due to variation in Allocative efficiency. The inefficiency model shows that the coefficient of Gender, family size, farming experience and extension have negative a priori sign and in consonance with the a priori expectation.