TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY AND TECHNOLOGICAL GAP RATIOS OF TOMATO PRODUCTION IN NORTHERN NIGERIA: A STOCHASTIC META FRONTIER APPROACH:

The study on technical efficiency and technological gap ratios of tomato production in Northern Nigeria used a stochastic meta-frontier approach to compare the technical efficiency (TE) and technological gap ratios (TGRs) of farmers after establishing the existence of heterogeneous technology adoption among farmers. Data were collected from a cross-section of 359 randomly selected farmers. A trans-log production function model proved more appropriate through a likelihood ratio test, therefore, stochastic frontier analysis and meta-frontier analysis approach were used. The study revealed that Plateau farmers are more technically efficient than Kano and Taraba counterparts respectively. Furthermore, the mean TGR associated with Taraba farmers is tangential to the meta-frontier output, this implies that Taraba farmers adopted the most advanced technology in the industry, while Plateau and Kano farmers need to close up 0.5% and 1.2% gap respectively in order to produce at the optimal output. By policy implication, Plateau and Kano farmers need to be educated on the need to adopt the best agricultural technology to increase their production. This calls for intensification of extension effort in Plateau and Kano state.