ABSTRACT

This study examined Resource productivity and efficiency of food crop production in Ngor — Okpala Local Government Area of Imo State. Data were collected with the aid of a well structured questionnaire from 50 farmers in the study area. It was designed to ascertain the socio — economic characteristics of the farmers with respect to age, farm size, sex, household size, educational level, marital status, extension visit, access to credit and farming experience. More so the production function, allocative efficiency and the constraints militating against food crop production were also estimated. A multi stage random sampling technique was employed in the data collection. Descriptive statistics, ordinary least square models and marginal value product were used for the data analyses. The study revealed that majority (64%) of the respondents were females, majority (60%) of the farmers were within the age bracket of 51 — 80 years with a mean age of 53 years, they had moderately large household size with a mean of 7 persons per household, majority (86%) of the farmers were educated. majority (86%) had farm sizes of less than a hectare and the farmers were experienced with a mean of 18 years. The multiple regression result on the production function of food crop production indicated that labour, fertilizer, seed and capital were positively significant at 10%, 1%, 10% and 1% respectively. The allocative efficiency result showed that labour, fertilizer, seeds, farm size and capital were over utilized by the food crop farmers and have percentage deviation from optimality of 99.9%, 81.0%, 74.0%, 99.9% and 73.0% respectively. The constraints militating against food crop production in the study area were generally accepted with a grand mean of 3.9. Recommendations such as the need for the farmers to reduce the use of labour, fertilizer, seeds planted, farm size, capital and the need for the government to provide adequate inputs, infrastructure and other facilities were also suggested.