ABSTRACT

The study analysed economic of turmeric production in selected L.G.A’s of Kaduna and Benue state, Nigeria. Specific objectives were to examine profit activities of turmeric business in the study area, analyse technical efficiency of turmeric producers in the study area, determine the cost efficiency of turmeric processors in the study area, determine marketing efficiency of turmeric marketers in the study area and identify and analyse the factors faced by turmeric producers, processors and marketers in the study area. Purposive and simple random sampling techniques were employed to select 222 respondents during the 2019-2020 cropping season. Data for the study was obtained using structured questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics such as mean, frequency percentages, gross margin, rate of return, stochastic frontier function, paired sample t- test and factor analysis were used to achieve the research objectives and hypothesis of the study. The result indicates that an average turmeric producer in Kaduna and Benue States was 38.15 and 46.6 years old, had 8 and 11 family members. Small scale turmeric production was profitable in the study areas with gross margin of N685,391.515 for Kaduna State and N 215,333.9286 for Benue State. The mean technical efficiency for Kaduna and Benue State was 0.28 and 0.49 which suggest that turmeric producers in the study areas were not technically efficient. The result also revealed that turmeric processors in the study areas were not cost efficient since both were operating above one. The result further revealed that 90% of turmeric distribution in Kaduna state was done by the retailers while 100% was also done by the retailers in Benue State. The market structure in both states had Gini Cofficient value above 0.35 which indicates that there was inequitable distribution of income among the respondents in the study areas. Major problems of turmeric production in the study areas include cost of labour, problem in selecting pesticide, financial problem, inadequate of government support, pest and diseases, high cost of pesticides, inadequate of patronage, availability of spurious chemicals in the market. Processing constraints include inadequate of government support, inadequate of buyers, inadequate of slicing machine, and inadequate of preservatives, inadequate of drying and packaging materials. Marketing problems include inadequate of market infrastructure, inadequate of remunerative price, non-availability of grading facility, transportation problem, inadequate of market information, inadequate of regulated market and large number of market intermediaries.