Farming Techniques, Environmental Challenges, and Technical Efficiency of Sweet Potato Production in Abia State, Nigeria
(ندگان)پدیدآور
Ehirim, NnamdiBen-Chendo, GloryOnyeagocha, StephenEssien, UbonOsuji, EmekaOkwara, Melissaنوع مدرک
TextOriginal Article
زبان مدرک
Englishچکیده
Viable sweet potato production is hard to achieve with indiscriminate use of farm inputs, resulting to wastage and environmental damages, as consequences are common problems of arable crop farming in Abia State. Issues arising from farm input use and their corresponding implications for environment called for a study on suitable farming practices and farm-specific technical efficiency for optimal resource use in sweet potato production in Abia State. Data were obtained from 156 sweet potatoe farmers through a multistage sampling technique using a structured questionaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean, relative frequency distribution, and the stochastic production frontier. Results showed that using inorganic fertilizer (65.378%) under rainfed production system with a frequent bush burning (66.67%) and low liming (5.8%) were very common practices with leaching, fragile soil, erosion, flooding, and soil acidity as consequences. Mixed cropping (63.46%) with improved varieties like TIS 8164 (71.2%) and 0087 (64.1%) were copping measures to some environmental challenges. Maximum Likelihood Estimates (MLE) showed a decreasing return to a scale of 0.236. The implication is that an increase in farm size and fertilizer application can significantly lead to a less than 0.06538 and 0.08142 proportionate increase in output of sweet potato respectively, or reduces it by less than 0.00413, with interest on borrowed capital. The gamma (0.0403) was less than unity and was significant at p
کلید واژگان
environmentTechnology
Efficiency
Sweet potato production
stochastic frontier
Abia State
Farm Management
شماره نشریه
4تاریخ نشر
2016-12-011395-09-11
ناشر
Islamic Azad University, Rasht Branchسازمان پدید آورنده
Department of Agricultural Economics, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State, NigeriaDepartment of Agricultural Economics, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria
Department of Agricultural Economics, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria
Department of Agricultural Economics, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria
Department of Agricultural Economics, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria
Department of Agricultural Economics, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria
شاپا
2159-58522159-5860