Resource use efficiency of landowners and tenants in cassava based farms in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria: A comparative analysis

摘要

This study investigated the resource use efficiency of landowners and tenants in cassava based farms in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Multistage and purposive sampling techniques were employed in selecting 90 cassava farmers from each of the two categories of farmers, making a total of 180 respondents. Stochastic production frontier model was adopted in the analysis. The result revealed that the coefficient of farm size and labour were not only positive but significantly related to the resource use by the landowners while farm size, labour and capital became significant variable to tenants in their use of farm resources. For the inefficiency model, the variation in the level of resource use efficiency was significantly influenced by household head educational level, sex and farming experience. However, education level, household size and farming experience significantly affected the efficiency of resource use in tenants’ farms. All the farmers in both farm categories were producing below the maximum efficiency frontier, although tenants’ famers tend to be more efficient in their use of resources than their landowners counterpart. Substantial scope exist for improving the efficiency of resource use in both landowners and tenants farms.