No abstract

Maize is cereal crops commonly grown in Nigeria and it is a source of livelihood for many farming households. This study analyzed the resource use efficiency in maize production among smallholder farmers in southwest, Nigeria. A multistage sampling method was used to select two hundred and seventy (270) farmers for this study. Primary data were collected using well-structured questionnaires. Descriptive statistics, gross margin analysis and stochastic frontier production function were used as analytical tools. The results showed that the mean age of the farmers was 47.7 years. Most (76.3%) are males which were married (82.2%) with household size of 5.8. There is high (82.9%) level of literacy among the farmers. The average output of production was 5,038.25kg which were gotten from planting of improved maize seeds (88.5%). Maize cultivation is profitable enterprise because for every ₦1 invested, ₦1.74will be realized as gain. The Maximum Likelihood Estimate (MLE) results revealed that the technical efficiency of maize farmers varied due to the presence of technical inefficiency effects on maize production. Farm size (5%), quantity of fertilizer (10%) and capital input (1%) are the factors significantly affecting technical efficiency. Also, household size (5%), marital status (1%) and gender (10%) are the factors that significantly influence technical inefficiency. The explanatory variables can account for 66% of the total variations in the efficiencies of production, while 34% of the variations are given to error. Policies and programmes that focus on encouraging more young people and women to agriculture should be enacted and implemented.

In most of sub-Saharan-Africa (SSA), agriculture land-use supports the livelihoods of the majority of people. Land use for agricultural-activity is an economic activity that is highly dependent upon weather and climate that produce food and fiber necessary to sustain human life. Hence, land-use for agriculture is expected to be vulnerable to climate variability and change. This paper deduced that Trans-logarithmic coefficients results of short-run sustainability-index (SRSI), land policy-intervention variables and household-sizes are dominance factors. Also, SRSI showed 0.69, suggesting that 69% of the farmers made unsustainable use of agricultural-land. Marginal Value Product (MVP) model was used as adaptation factors determinants and was tested for its appropriateness which gave a robust estimations. The estimated correlation coefficients among the various adaptation options are significant for 10 out of 19 combinations. Access to information on climate-change from extension or other public sources, farmer-to-farmer extension and knowledge on agro-ecology strengthen the likelihood of climate-change perception and adaptation. The study indicated a strong relationship between efficient use of agricultural land and adaptive processes to climate change. Hence, policies of promoting and motivating sustainable land-use management need to be entrenched, in addition to providing efficient climatic data intervention that will improve on adaptive processes of farmers.