Volume 10, Issue 22, July - December 2024

Profitability and resource use efficiency of cocoa farmers in Idanre Local Government Area of Ondo State

Johnson SB^1♦, Awoseyila F¹, Ijigbade JO², Borokini EA¹, Adetarami O³

¹Department of Agricultural Extension and Management, Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, P. M. B 1019, Ondo State, Nigeria
²Department of Agricultural Technology, Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, P. M. B 1019, Ondo State, Nigeria
³Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria

^♦Corresponding author
Department of Agricultural Extension and Management, Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, P. M. B 1019, Ondo State, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Before this study, several studies investigated the resource use efficiency of cocoa farmers in the study area. However, there seems to be no consensus on the production stage of cocoa in Idanre LGA of Ondo State. Hence, this study focuses on the profitability and resource use efficiency of the farmers with a view to determining the current stage of their production. A Cobb-Douglas production function was postulated using an ordinary least squares technique to determine the production elasticity of inputs used by the respondents. To achieve the objective, a multi-stage sampling procedure was used to randomly select two hundred and forty (240) farmers. Data were collected through a well-structured questionnaire. Our results showed that the mean age of cocoa farmers was 47 years, males dominated cocoa production (80.0%), and their mean years of schooling were 8.27. Most of them were married (93.3%), with a mean household size of 8. The net returns per 50 kg (₦8,281.8) from cocoa production showed that the venture was profitable. The return to scale was 1.5334, indicating that the production of cocoa is still in stage I of the production region, thus suggesting that some resources are inefficiently employed. Based on our findings, the study concludes that resources are not optimally allocated. The study, therefore, recommends that cocoa farmers should increase labor, agrochemicals and farm size for optimal combination of resources. However, farmers are advised to reduce the cost of spraying and fertilisers usage.

Keywords: Profitability, resource use efficiency, cocoa production, productivity

Discovery Agriculture, 2024, 10, e18da1591

PDF

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54905/disssi.v10i22.e18da1591

Published: 30 July 2024