Benue State University, Makurdi

Efficiency of Resource Use in Tomato Enterprise in Tarka Local Government Area, Benue State

G.A. Abu, S.O. Agbo and P.I. Ater

Abstract

Efficiency of resource-use in tomato enterprise in Tarka Local Government Area of Benue State was carried out to identify the problems facing tomato farmers in the study area and to determine the productivity and efficiency of resource use in tomato production. One hundred respondents were randomly selected from ten council wards. The result show that the problems faced by tomato farmers in the study area are unavailability of improved seeds, inadequate labour supply, inadequate credit facilities, agrochemicals and inefficient extention services. The Cobb-Douglas production function used in estimating the relationship between input and output showed that land, labour and capital were significant at 5% level of probability. The estimated function showed diminishing return to scale, which suggest stage II of production process. The values of the average physical products were comparatively greater than those of the marginal physical products. These two conditions suggest that the farmers were technically efficient in tomato production. The values of the marginal products were compared with the marginal cost of input to determine whether the farmers were allocatively efficient. The MVP of land, labour and capital were greater than their marginal cost, implying that these inputs were not optimally utilized. The study recommend that input such as improved seeds, agrochemicals, credit as well as enough extension workers be provided by the government to assist resource-poor farmers..

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