Measurement of scale efficiency in ginger farms in Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria: non-parametric model approach
Abstract
The study was carried out to measure scale efficiency among ginger farmers in Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State. A two stage sampling techniques was used to select 99 ginger farmers from whom the data for the study were collected. Data were analyzed using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and descriptive statistics. Results show that the mean values of overall TE, Pure TE and scale efficiency were 0.718, 0.804 and 0.898 respectively. Only 14 % the farms were operating on the optimal scale. While about 86% of the farms were experiencing scale inefficiency (sub-optimal scale), consisting of 47% of the farms revealing increasing return to scale and 38% exhibiting decreasing returns to scale. Therefore, it is recommended that for realization of optimal production scale in the study area, farmers operating at inefficient production scale should be encouraged to either increase farm size to address scale inefficiency from IRS, or decrease farm size to remedy scale inefficiency due to DRS.
Keywords: Ginger farms, scale efficiency and DEA
NAJ supports free online communication and exchange of knowledge as the most effective way of ensuring that the fruits of research and development practice are made widely available. It is therefore committed to open access, which, for authors, enables the widest possible dissemination of their findings and, for readers, increases their ability to discover pertinent information. The Journal adopts and uses the CC: BY license and is open access. This license lets others distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the Journal’s published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Copyright for articles published in this Journal is retained by the Journal.
