ECONOMICS OF SORGHUM PRODUCTION IN GUYUK LOCAL GOVERNMENT OF ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA

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1 ECONOMICS OF SORGHUM PRODUCTION IN GUYUK LOCAL GOVERNMENT OF ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA 1 J.W Zalkuwi 2 E.F Adebayo 3 Moses J.D, 4 Gwandi. O 1 Research Scholar,Department of Agricultural economics, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India 2 Department of Agriculture economics and extension, MAUTECH, Yola, Nigeria. 3 Department of Agriculture economics and extension, Adamawa state university, P.M.B 25 Mubi, Nigeria. 4 School of Agriculture, Federal Polytechnic P.M.B. 35 Mubi, Adamawa State, Nigeria. 1 Corresponding Author s jzalkwi4u@gmail.com Abstract This paper analyses the economics of sorghum production in Guyuk local government of Adamawa state. Structured questionnaire was used to obtain data from 100 sorghum farmers selected by simple random sampling. Budgetary and stochastic frontier production function techniques were employed to analyse the data. The results indicates about 70% of the farmers cultivated less than three hectares and 91% had farmed for more than five years of farming experience while 81% had formal education. Sorghum production was found to be profitable with returns on Naira investment of The coefficient of farm size and seed were positive and significant at 1% level while family and hired labour were negative and insignificant. Results also shows that production input were not optimally used and thus, profit level can be increased by increasing land, seed and decreasing family and hired labour. Mean efficiency were the coefficient Age, Gender, and Family size have negative apriori sign and in consonance with apriori expectation while farming experience, literacy and extension contact have positive co-efficient. Farmers operate at 31.03% below frontier level due to variation in technical efficiency. The major problems of the farmers are striga infestation, variability in rainfall, shortage/high cost of inputs as well as low price of sorghum. Appropriate policy recommendation was proffered in order to boost production to raise food supply in the nation. Key words: Sorghum production, Economics, Profitability, Resource use, Guyuk. INTRODUCTION Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] locally called guinea corn is the world s fourth most important cereal in terms of production and area (Basavaraja et al., 2005) According to them, sorghum area under cultivation stood at 43 million hectares and its production output at 59.5 million tonnes in About 90% of the world s sorghum is 687

2 concentrated mainly in developing countries of Africa and Asia (Basavaraja et al, 200) Sorghum is generally believed to have originated around the present day Ethiopia where a lot of its wild relative exist (Dogget, 1988). In Nigeria, the area of Sorghum cultivation is estimated to be 6.86 million hectares and it extends from northward of latitude 8 0 to latitude 14 0 N (Aba et al., 2004). Nigeria becomes the highest sorghum producer in West African sub-region accounting for 71% the regional total sorghum output (Obilana, 2003). Globally the country leads in the sorghum production for human consumption and has risen from 5 th position in 1995 (FAO, 1995) to be 3 rd largest producer of sorghum in the world after USA and India where more than 90% of their sorghum harvested is used for animal feeds (Obilana, 2005). Sorghum is one of the most important staple foods in Nigeria; the grain is essentially used for human consumption as well as industrial raw material for beer making and for the production of syrup in pharmaceutical industries. The leaves and the stove are used as livestock feed and the stalks for thatching houses and making fences (FAO, 2003). In Adamawa state, sorghum has the largest of all crops grown and it is grown and it is grown on an area of 70,000 hectare with 41, 000 hectares under sole and 29,000 hectares in mix cropping (ADAPP, 1996). Sorghum is a major food crop in Adamawa State and is being produced in Guyuk L.G.A mainly smallscale farmers whose production system are generally characterized by the use of traditional method; Addition to there is no adequate information on the economics of sorghum production in the area, especially the profitability status and efficiency of resource use in sorghum production. However sorghum production remains a valuable source of livelihood of the people in the area. It is therefore important to research into the cost and return of sorghum production and scale economics of resource used by the farmers with the aim of improving the enterprise and farmers productivity for an increased food production in the country. This study attempts an economic analysis of sorghum production in Guyuk LGA of Adamawa State. It focused on socio-economic characteristic of the farmers, profitability, resource use efficiency and problem of sorghum production in the area. METHODOLOGY Guyuk Local Government area of Adamawa State lies between longitude and N and between latitude and east of the equator. The local Government area shares common boundaries with Numan Local Government to the south, Shelleng Local Government to the East, Lamurde Local Government to the south west. It also shares common boundaries with two states: Gombe State to the west and Borno State to the north (Adamawa State Government Dairy, 2008). The local Government consist of ten wards with an estimated population of 177,785 people out of which 90,422 are male while 87,363 are female based on 2006 census (CBN 2007). Using simple random sampling of five districts out of ten distinct in the Local Government Area was chosen and two villages were selected from each district giving a total of 10 villages. A total of 100 farmers were sampled from the 10 villages whose response to structured questionnaire gave rise to the data used for the study. 688

3 The data was based on sorghum production for the 2010/2011 cropping season and relate to the respondents background, input used, output and revenue realized TECHNIQUE OF DATA ANALYSIS Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed. Budgetary technique was used to ascertain the profitability of sorghum enterprise. It is stated as follows; GM = TR TVC NI = GM TFC Where GM = Gross Margin () TR = Total Revenue () TVC = Total variable Cost () NI= Net Farm Income () TFC = Total Fixed Cost () The variable costs were cost of seed, fertilizer, herbicide, ploughing while fixed costs were rent on land and depreciation on fixed assets. The stochastic frontier production function was used to determine resource use efficiency. The stochastic frontier production function that was use; Log Y 1 = B 0 + B 1 Log X 1 + B 2 Log X 2. B 6 log X 6 + V i U i Y= Output of sorghum (Kg) X 1 = Farm size (hectare) X 2 = Quantity of fertilizer (Kg) X 3 = Quantity of sorghum seed planted (Kg) X 4 = Quantity of herbicide used (liters) X 5 = Amount of family labour used (man-day) X 6 = Amount of hired labour used (man-day) V 1 = Random noise (While noise) which are N (O,δ 2,v) U 1 = Inefficiency effect which are non-negative half normal distinguish N (O, δ 2, v) The efficiency model defined by U 1 = δ 0 + δ 1 Z 1 + δ 2 Z 2... δ 7 Z 7 Where U 1 = Inefficiency effect Z 1 = Age of the farmer (in years) Z 2 = literacy level (in years) Z 3 = Farmer experience (in years) 689

4 Z 4 = Extension contact (1 contacted, 0 otherwise) Z 5 = Gender of the farmer Z 6 = Access to formal credit RESULTS AND DISCUSSION SOCIO- ECONOMIC CHARACTERS OF SORGHUM FARMERS: Table 1 present the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents. Sorghum production is undertaken by males and females, 83% and 17% respectively in the are majority of them aged between years old (74%) are still productive for farming purpose. More than half of them (81%) had formal education and hence will possibly be innovative. Also, the farmers are generally small scale farmers cultivating on an average of 2.5 hectares and most of them (69%) own the farm land which is an advantage to their planning horizon. Table 1: Socio-economic characteristics of farmers Variable Frequency Percentage Sex Male Female Age (Years) Less than and above Literacy level No formal education Primary School Secondary school Tertiary Family size

5 Farm size < 1 Hectare and above Landownership Not owner Owner Year of Experience Source: Field Survey 2011 Profitability of sorghum production Based on the analysis of cost and return in Table 2, it is worth while to invest in sorghum production in the area since it yield a profit margin 21,046.50/ha, moreover, this revealed a turn over 107% considering the cost of production which ascertained that the venture is reasonably profitable. This is consonance with the finding of Zalkuwi and Giroh(2014) Table 2: Average cost and return of sorghum production Input used Cost (/ha) Percentage A. Variable cost Seed Herbicide 1, Fertilizer 1,

6 Transportation Storage Labour 12, Total variable cost (TVC) 16, B. Fixed cost Rent on land 1, Fixed assets (Depreciation) 1, Total fixed cost (TFC) 2, Total cost (TVC + TFC) 19, C. Total Revenue Gross margin 23, Net income 21, Return on investment 1.07 Source: Computed from survey data 2011 Production function The result of the stochastic frontier production function analysis is presented on table 3. it shows that the variance parameter sigma squared (d 2- ) and gamma ( r) were statistically significant at 1% level. The coefficient of farm size and seed were positive and significant at 1% level while family labour and hired labour were negative and insignificant. Profit level can be increased by increasing the farm size and quantity of seed and also decreasing the use of manual labour. This in tandem with the finding of Zalkuwi(2013) and Gwandi(2012) Table 4 reveals the technical efficiency rating of sorghum farmer which shows that the technical efficiency of the sampled farmers is less than 1 (100%) hence the variation in the technical efficiency exist among them. It means that farmers in the study area are producing below maximum efficiency. The minimum efficiency while the maximum is and their mean efficiency Farmers operate 31.03% below frontier level due to variation in technical efficiency. The coefficient Age, Gender, and Family size have negative apriori sign and in consonance with apriori expectation while farming experience, literacy and extension contact have positive co-efficient. Table 3: Maximum likelihood estimate of Cobb-Douglas stochastic frontier production and inefficiency model for sorghum farmers. Variable Parameter Co-efficient t value Constant B *** Farm size (X 1 ) B *** Fertilizer (X 2 ) B

7 Seed (X 3 ) B *** Herbicide (X 4 ) B * Family labour (X 5 ) B Hired labour (X 6 ) B Inefficiency model Constant δ *** Age δ *** Literacy δ Formal experience δ *** Extension contact δ Gender δ Family size δ Variance parameter Sigma squared δ *** Gamma r *** Source: components from stochastic frontier result *** = Significant at 1% ** = Significant at 5% * = Significant at 10% Table 4: Frequency distribution of technical efficiency rating of the sorghum farmers Efficiency Frequency Percentage < Minimum efficiency Maximum efficiency

8 Mean efficiency Source: Component from stochastic frontiers result Constraints of sorghum production The constraints militating against increase sorghum production in the area include striga infestation (15.96%), variability in amount of rainfall (14.47%), shortage/high cost of inputs (13.73%) while inadequate farm credit, low price of sorghum and shortage of labour also notable (Table 5), these have affected the harvest of the farmers. Use of striga resistant variety, good cultural practice like early planting, timely and adequate supply of farm inputs should be made to farmers through efficient distribution system will go a long way to improve farmers productivity Table 5: PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERS BY THE RESPONDENTS Nature of problem Frequency Percentage Striga infestation % Variability in amount of rainfall Shortage/high cost of inputs Inadequate farm credit Low price of sorghum Shortage of labour Pest and disease Inadequate extension support Bird invasion Lack of storage facilities Total *

9 CONCLUSION: Economics of sorghum production in Guyuk Local Government area of Adamawa state was investigated. The enterprise is revealed to be profitable in the area. However resources were not efficiently used in the production and hence adjustment in resource allocation is required to raise profit. Farmers faced many problems in their production. Therefore research effort should be intensified to develop herbicide to prevent and control striga infestation and improve seeds and agro-chemicals should be supplied at subsidized rates to farmers; they need to be given financial assistance to increase farm size since these inputs are determinants of sorghum output. To educate the farmers is equally important in order to enhance their resource management; they should be advised to form co-operative societies for easy input procurement. Following recommendation will lead to increased sorghum production and good supply in the country as well as better living standard of the farmers. REFERENCE Aba, D.A., Idem, N.U.A., Marley, P.S. and Maigida, D.N. (2004). Sorghum, Idem, N.U.A and Showewimo, F.A. (eds) Cereals Crops of Nigeria: Principles of Production and Utilization, Zaria. Ade Commercial Press, pp Adamawa Agricultural Development Programme (2010). Crop Production recommendation for Adamawa State. Adamawa Agricultural Development Programme, Yola-Nigeria pp8-13. Central Bank of Nigeria (2007). Annual reports and Statement of Account for the year ended 31 st December, Central Bank of Nigeria, Abuja. Doggett. H. (1988). Sorghum. Longman Group UK Limited 512p Food and Agriculture Organization (1995). Production year book. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy. Basavaraja, H, Hugar, A.Y., Nahajanshetti, S.B., Angadi, V.V. and Rao, B.D. (2005). Kharif sorghum in Karnataka: An Economic Analysis. Agricultural Economic Research Review 18: Food and Agriculture Organization FAO (2003). Production year book. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy. 695

10 Food and Agriculture Organization (2007). Production year book. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy. Gwandi.O (2012). Economics of Beniseed (sesamum indicum l) production in mubi region of Adamawa state, NigeriaUnpublished M. Sc thesis, Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, SAAT, FUT, Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria Obilana, A.I. (2005). Lagos State Polytechnic Public Lecture Series 2:1-27 Zalkuwi.J(2013) Comparative analysis of technical efficiency of sole sorghum and sorghum mixed with cowpea production systems in Guyuk local Government Area of Adamawa state, Nigeria.. International Journal of innovative Research and Studies. Volume 2(12); Zalkuwi. J and Giroh Y.D.,(2014) Comparative Profitability Analysis of Sole and Mixed Sorghum (With Cowpea) Production in Guyuk Local Government Area of Adamawa State, Nigeria. International Journal of Basic and applied Sciences. Volume 3(2);