GENDER DIFFERENCES IN ECONOMIES OF SCALE AND RESOURCE USE EFFICIENCY OF RICE PRODUCTION AMONG SMALLHOLD FARMING HOUSEHOLDS, FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study evaluated gender differences in economies of scale and resource use efficiency in rice production among smallholder farmers in Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria. Multistage sampling technique was adopted for this study. Data were collected through the use of a well-structured questionnaires from 316 sampled smallholder rice farmers. The following statistical and econometrics tools were used to achieve the stated objectives; Descriptive Statistics, Budgetary Technique (Gross Margin Analysis), Financial Analysis, Cobb Douglass Production Function. Marginal Productivity and Resource-Use Efficiency, Economies of Scale, Stochastic Production Frontier, Stochastic Cost Frontier, Problem Confrontation Index, Principal Component Analysis, t-Test Analysis and Z-Test Analysis. The results revealed that 57.6% of the sampled smallholder rice farmers were male-headed smallholder farmers while about 42.4% were female-headed. The average age of the sampled male smallholder farmers was 44 years while the female smallholder farmers had an average age of 42 years. The smallholder male farmers had an average farm size of 3.3 hectares while female farmers had 2.6 hectares. The rate of return on investment estimated for male rice farmers was 1.03, female rice farmers 1.93. This study showed that rice production was profitable for both male and female smallholder rice farmers. The results of the Cobb Douglas production function model revealed that the statistically significant factors influencing the total output of rice production for male smallholder farmers were; seed input P<0.01, farm size P<0.01 and inorganic fertilizer P<0.1 while the statistically significant factors influencing total output of rice production for female smallholder rice farmers were farm size P<0.01, inorganic fertilizer P<0.01 and Labour P<0.01. Also the results show that the estimated return to scale for male rice farmers was 0.7207 while for female rice farmers was 0.6151 and the return to scale for the pooled data was 0.6529 which implies Decreasing Return to Scale (DRS). The study further show that both male and female rice farmers underutilized their production resources. The results of the Stochastic frontier production function show that the statistically significant factors influencing technical efficiency (total output) of rice production for male smallholder rice farmers were seed inputs P<0.01, farm size P<0.01, inorganic fertilizer P<0.05, and labour input P<0.1 while the factors influencing technical efficiency (total output) for female rice farmers were; seed inputs P<0.01, farm size P<0.01, inorganic fertilizer P<0.05 and labour P<0.1 and the pooled data show that the statistically significant factors influencing technical efficiency (total output) of rice production for female farmers were farm size, P<0.1, inorganic fertilizer P<0.01, agrochemical P<0.1 and labour P<0.01. The statistically significant factors influencing technical inefficiencies for male smallholder farmers were sex P<0.01, age P<0.01, years schooling P<0.1, access to credit P<0.05, extension contact P<0.01, farming experience P<0.01, unit price P<0.01and household size P<0.01. The average technical efficiency obtained by male smallholder farmers was 70.2% while female farmers obtained 68.9%. The statistically significant factors influencing technical efficiencies for female smallholder rice farmers were: Age P<0.01, years schooling P<0.01, access to credit P<0.01, farming experience P<0.05, unit price P<0.01, P<0.1 and cooperative association P<0.01. The statistically significant factors influencing total cost of rice production for male smallholder farmers were: Cost of seed P<0.1, total output P<0.01, cost of organic fertilizer P<0.1, cost of inorganic fertilizer P<0.1, cost of agrochemical P<0.1, and cost of labour while the statistically significant factors influencing total cost of rice production for female smallholder rice farmer were: cost of seed P<0.01, cost land rent P<0.01, cost of organic fertilizer P<0.01, cost of inorganic fertilizer P<0.01, agrochemical P<0.1 and labour 0.01 and the poled sample show that the statistically significant factors influencing total cost of rice production among sampled rice farmers were: Cost of seed P<0.01, total output P<0.01, cost of xvii

land rent<0.01, cost of organic fertilizer P<0.01, cost of inorganic fertilizer P<0.01 cost of agrochemical P<0.01 and cost of labour P<0.01. The average allocative efficiency score attained by male and female smallholder rice farmers was 73.8% and 79.8% and the pooled sample was 76.5% respectively. The study further show that the statistically significant factors influencing the allocative efficiency of rice production for male smallholder rice farmers were: Age P<0.01, years schooling P<0.05, nonfarm income P<0.1, access to credit P<0.01, extension contact P<0.05 and unit price P<0.05. The statistically significant factors influencing allocative efficiency for female smallholder rice farmers were: Sex P<0.05, age P<0.01, years schooling P<0.05, access to credit P<0.01, extension contact P<0.05, farming experience P<0.05, unit price P<0.05, household size P<0.1 and cooperative association P<0.1. The statistically significant factors influencing economic efficiencies for male smallholder rice farmers were age P<0.05, years schooling P<0.05, access to credit P<0.01, extension contact P<0.1, farming experience P<0.05, unit price P<0.05, price information P<0.1 and household size P<0.01. The average economic efficiency score index obtained by male and female smallholder rice farmers was 51.6% and 55.5% and the pooled sample was 54.6%. The statistically significant factors influencing economic efficiencies for female smallholder rice farmers were: age P<0.1, years schooling P<0.05, nonfarm income P<0.01, access to credit P< 0.05, extension contact P<0.1 farming experience P<0.1, unit price P<0.01 household size P<0.1 and cooperative association P<0.1. The male smallholder rice farmers were confronted with the problems of farmer herder clashes, price fluctuation, poor infrastructure, inadequate farm inputs, high cost of labour, and inadequate capital while the female smallholder rice farmers were confronted with the problems of high cost of labour, inadequate capital, poor infrastructure, discrimination in terms of access to land, inadequate farm inputs and lack of farm machineries. Therefore, the study recommends that farm mechanization and machineries like tractors with farm implement should be provided to both male and female farmers for land preparation in order to reduce drudgery and high cost of labour to maximize high profit, irrigation facilities should also be made available by government to rice farmers as another alternative farming system for food availability all year round, inputs such as improved seed varieties, fertilizers, capital at low interest rate and agrochemical inputs should be provided to farmers by government of Nigeria or NGOs and other stakeholders at affordable price or at subsidized rate and timely, extension services should also be provided to small scale rice farmers on improved rice production, female rice farmers should be granted equal chance or opportunity of having access to land resources to increase productivity, farmers should be encouraged to join cooperative organizations in order to have access to credit facilities and to be able to adopt rice production technologies which will in turn increase their production capacity that might lead into increase in their income, improve their livelihood, food security and welfare of the smallholder farmers in the study area.