ABSTRACT

This work is based on the economics of food crop production in Ezinihitte Mbaise local government area of Imo State. specifically, the objectives are to determine socio-economic characteristics of food crop farmers, analyze cost and return associated with food crop production, estimate production function1 estimate efficiency of resource used in food crop production in the study area, identify the major problems of food crop and make appropriate policy recommendations based on the research. Four communities were randomly selected for the study and the respondents were selected through a simple random sampling techniques and total respondents interviewed was 80. Data collected were analysed using tables, percentages, frequency distribution, means and regression analysis. Results estimates an average net farm income of N2 17,802.30. This show that food crop production is profitable in Ezinihitte Mbaise local government area of Imo State. A number of factors where found to militate against food crop production in the study area. The major constraints of * food crop production in the study area are lack of access to land, pest and disease attack, lack of fund, bad roads and lack of fertilizer. It was recommended that loans should be given to farmers so as to acquire more expense of lands, price of purchased farm inputs such as fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides can be subsidized by government at affordable prices, and also farmers can form co-operative societies as this can help to reduce incidence of insufficient capital in food crop production in the study area.