Labour productivity and resource use efficiency amongst smallholder cocoa farmers in Abia state, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined labour productivity and resource efficiency amongst smallholder cocoa farmers in Abia State, Nigeria. A purposive random sampling technique was adopted in selecting 60 cocoa farmers from three agricultural zones in the State. The analytical techniques used involve inferential statistics like means, frequency and percentages. Loglinear regression analysis was also used. The results show that factors influencing labour productivity among cocoa farmers include level of education, experience and planting material. Also, the determinants of output among cocoa farmers revealed that planting materials, fertilizer use and capital were significant determinants of output among cocoa farmers in the study area. The determinants of allocative efficiency show that seed was under-utilized, while farm size, labour, fertilizer and capital were over-utilized. The results further revealed that poor farm wages (labour payments) ranked highest (38.3%) among labour inhibitor in the study area. It is therefore recommended that supply of adequate capital in terms of productivity should form a policy trust in agriculture; adequate policy that would encourage provision of capital to cocoa farmers is advocated. The farmers should be encouraged to utilize their family labour efficiently in order to reduce use of hired labour which has led to increase in the cost of food crops production and decrease in farm revenue.

Key words: labour productivity, allocative efficiency, resource use, cocoa farmers, Abia State