Technical Efficiency of Sole Maize and Maize/Melon Intercrop in Osun State, Nigeria

Abstract

Intercropping has been found out to have enormous economic advantages for the farmer, although with some possible adjoining disadvantages attributable to competition and lack of adequate management. This study therefore analyzed and compared the technical efficiencies of sole maize and maize/melon intercrop farmers in Osun State with a view of determining the factors that influences it. Purposive sampling was used to select 47 respondents each for sole maize and maize/melon intercrop system. Stochastic frontier production function was used to estimate the technical efficiencies. The study revealed that the mean technical efficiency of maize/melon intercrop farmers was higher than that of the sole maize farmers. Costs of land, labor and implement were the factors affecting the sole maize farmers’ efficiency, while the maize/melon intercrop farmers’ efficiency was significantly determined by costs of land, labor and capital. No significant factor determines inefficiency for sole maize farmers. However, land security and extension visit were the major significant inefficiency factors found out to reduce the inefficiencies of maize/ melon intercrop farmers in the study area. It is recommended that famers in the study area should venture into the intercropping of maize and melon more than sole maize cropping; government should strengthen land security and give adequate motivation to extension agents to visit farmers more in order to increase their technical efficiencies.