The research investigated the risk attitude, risk sources and management strategies, and the
technical and cost efficiencies of farmers in Kebbi State, Nigeria, with the aim of generating
reliable information on the influence of risk attitudes of the decision-making behaviour of
farmers and determinants of efficiency.
Various techniques were applied in order to achieve the objectives of the study. They
include: the Experimental Gambling Approach, Factor Analysis, Logit regression, Data
Envelopment Analysis, Double Bootstrapping procedure and the Metatechnology Approach.
Data to conduct the research was obtained mainly from primary sources through a
questionnaire survey of 256 farmers, comprising 98 monocroppers and 158 intercroppers.
Some of the important findings from the research are:
· All the farmers exhibit some level of risk aversion. The intercroppers were
statistically significantly more risk-averse than the monocroppers. Risk attitude
influences the decisions farmers make in the production process and should be
considered when formulating agricultural policies.
· The most important sources of risk for both monocroppers and intercroppers are
diseases, erratic rainfall, changes in government policy, changes in climatic
conditions, price fluctuation (of inputs and outputs) and floods/storms. The most
important risk management strategies for monocroppers are spraying for diseases and
pests, spreading sales, borrowing (cash or grains) and fadama cultivation. These
factors should be considered when designing extension programmes and insurance
schemes. The intercrop farmers perceived family members working off-farm,
spreading sales, intercropping and borrowing (cash or grains) as the most important
coping strategies.
· The main findings from the factor analysis for the sources of risk for the
monocroppers and intercroppers are that the factors âsocialâ, ârainfallâ and
âuncertaintiesâ are important to both groups of farmers. Since farmers do not have
control over the rainfall factor as a source of risk, there is, inter alia, a need to have an
effective agricultural insurance scheme for the farmers in the study area. Farming
experience, asset value, risk aversion and land degradation were found to have
statistical significant influences on the choice of cropping systems in Kebbi State.
· The results from the technical efficiency analysis suggest that there is scope for
increasing the technical efficiency levels of both monocrop and intercrop farmers and
hence their ability to increase output levels at current input levels and within the
existing technology set.
· Based on the metatechnology ratio, the millet/cowpea group were the more
technically efficient, followed by the sorghum/cowpea group. The sorghum group
were less technically efficient. This suggests that crop diversification, in order to
manage risk sources, has the potential for improving crop productivity in Kebbi State.
Crop combinations, however, prove to play an important role. Care should be taken
to select the optimal combination of crops to include in the intercropping system.
· In terms of cost efficiency, farmers in the study area were relatively cost-inefficient.
The metatechnology ratio for cost efficiency depicts that the sorghum/cowpea group
were more cost efficient than their counterpart sorghum, and millet/cowpea group.
Selection of farm inputs at minimum cost will help to reduce production cost and
hence improve profitability of the farmers.
· Low levels of technical and cost efficiency suggest that major scope exists to increase
performance of the farmers, even at their current output levels and within their
existing technology set. Support services, such as subsidies on farm inputs, provision
of credit and extension services of the new Agricultural Transformation Agenda
Programme (ATAP), should be properly implemented and targeted at the small-scale
farmers.
· The determinants of efficiency differ between the monocroppers and intercroppers,
and also differ between the intercrop groups. This suggests that different groups of
farmers operate under different technology sets.
· The results also suggest that the existing knowledge on the various factors that
influence both technical and cost efficiency is not exhaustive and accordingly that
there is a need to explore other characteristics that influence the farmersâ decision
process within their technology set.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-07182013-112304 |
| Date | 18 July 2013 |
| Creators | Jirgi, Abigail John |
| Contributors | Prof JN Nmadu, Dr H Jordaan, Prof B Grové, Prof MF Viljoen |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-07182013-112304/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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