Economics of Water Yam (Dioscorea alata) Production in South Eastern Nigeria

The decreasing trend in acceptability, yield and income realized from water yam (Dioscorea alata) production in South Eastern Nigeria informed this study. It specifically examined respondents enterprise profitability, the socio-economic determinants of output, production system and constraints to production. Multi-stage and random sampling procedure were used in selecting 120 respondents from three of the five states in the region. Pre-tested questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection while descriptive statistics, enterprise budgeting and multiple regression were used for data analysis. Findings showed that majority (67%) of the respondents were males, 75% were married with mean household size of 5 persons and mean educational attainment of 8 years. Farming systems adopted by the farmers included mixed and continuous cropping, and farm sizes of less than one hectare. Output was significantly and positively determined by educational level, gender, farm size, cost of inputs, number of extension visits and amount of credit obtained. The enterprise was profitable judging by the positive values of gross margin, net farm income, mean net farm income and net return on investment of N1,893,114, N1,705,965, N14,216.38 and 0.39 respectively. Production was majorly constrained by high cost of labour, low acceptability and demand of product, lack of improved varieties as well as poor technical know-how. Research institutes should focus efforts on upgrading the yield and quality of the variety while government provides enabling incentives to the extension agencies and farmers, to enhance their outputs and ensure improvement in product supply and acceptability.