Do Cluster Farming Practices Improve Profitability and Productivity Indices of Smallholder Rice Farmers? Evidence From Borno State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the comparative analysis of technical efficiency of cluster and non-cluster rice farming in Borno state, Nigeria. Primary data were collected through structured questionnaire administered to 232 farmers comprising of 93 clustering and 139 non-clustering rice farmers in Borno State, Nigeria. Data were subjected to analytical techniques that included descriptive statistics, gross margin, t-test and stochastic frontier production function (SFPF). Cluster rice farming enterprise per hectare was more profitable by producing a gross margin (GM) of 196,020.62/ha thus returning N1.72 on every N1.00 invested as compared to non-cluster farming which produced a GM of 99,619.32/ha and thus had a return of N0.96 on every N1.00 invested. The SFPF revealed an average technical efficiency (TE) of 0.76 for cluster farming was higher than 0.58 for non-cluster farmers. Hence, cluster rice farming was more technically efficient compared to non-cluster rice farming. The determining factors of TE in cluster farming include seed (-0.49), fertilizer (0.242), agro-chemicals (0.341) and labour (0.747) compared to non-cluster which included fertilizer (0.207), agro-chemicals (-0.291) and labour (0.668). Inefficiency variables were insignificant in cluster farming while household members active in farming (0.811), years of farming experience (-0.226), and amount of credit utilized (0.5e-4) were statistically significant in non-cluster farming. Insecurity, pest infestation and shortage of water were critical production constraints faced by cluster farmers compared to non-cluster farmers faced with constraints such as shortage of water, insecurity and flooding. Non-clustering farmers should adopt production cluster farming to boost their profit, increase their efficiency and take advantage of the enormous services attributed to working in groups.