By Nwakpu, Cletus Chukwuma
This study investigated the economic analysis of adoption and
factor productivity of some recommended rice technologies in Ebonyi
State of Nigeria. The specific objectives were, to describe the major rice
production systems in the area, identify and analyze the socio-economic
factors which influence farmers' adoption decision, estimate and
compare factor productivity, resource use efficiency, costs and returns
between adopters and non adopters as well as identify the major
constraints against the adoption of improved rice technologies and
increased rice production in the area.
Six local government areas; two from each of the three agricultural
zones of the state were purposively selected for the study. Multistage
random sampling technique was employed to select a total of 144 rice
farmers (comprising 72 adopters and 72 non-adopters) on whom
structured questionnaire were administered. Oral interviews and field
measurement in addition to the questionnaire formed the major parts of
the primary sources used for data collection. Descriptive statistics,
probit model, Cobb Douglas production function and costs and returns
enterprise analysis were used for data analysis. Farm resources
considered in the resea'rcfi" Ciiklude land, labour, rice seeds,
agrochemicals and miscellaneous variable capital inputs.
Results showed that whereas the greatest percentage (52%) of the
adopters fell within the middle age limit. of between 31 to 40 years, the
greatest percentage (33%) of the non-adopters fell within the older age
category of 51 to 60 years.
The result of the probit model showed that age, level of formal
education, farm size, level of income, access to credit and membership
to farmers grou pslco-operatives were the socio-economic variables that
significantly influenced the farmers' decision to adopt or not to adopt the O+ .d recommended rice technologies.
From the Cobb Douglas production regression, the study revealed
that the production resources analyzed contributed to output for adopters
and non-adopters under the two rice systems. The results of the ratio of
the marginal value product (MVP) to the marginal factor cost (MFC)
revealed that whereas the adopters were more efficient in the allocation
of rice seeds (X& agrochemicals (X4) and miscellaneous input (X5)
under the lowland rice system, the adopters under the upland rice
system were more efficient than the non-adopters in the allocation of all
the resource inputs excepting rice seeds (X3).
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The study also revealed that major constraints to the adoption of
improved rice technologies include high cost of inputs, high illiteracy
level among others. Other major constraints to increased rice production
in the area include high cost of inputs, low prices for domestic rice due to
importation of foreign rice, prevalence of pests and diseases among
others.