Evaluation of Profitability of Maize Production in Akoko South West Local Government Area, Ondo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was carried out to examine the profitability of maize production in Akoko South-West Local Government Area, Ondo State, Nigeria. The data for the study were collected primarily using a well-structured questionnaire and interview schedules. The production data covered a period of 3years (2018-2020). A multistage sampling procedure was used to randomly select 120 respondents. Descriptive statistics, budgetary analysis and a Linear multiple regression model were used to analyse the data. The results showed that the average age of the respondent was 44 years, with (65.0%) of them being male. Majority of the maize farmers (85.3%) were married and had an average family size of 5 members. The result also proved that only 5.8% of the farmers had no formal education while 94.2% of them had one form of education or the other. Furthermore, the average farm size of the majority of the respondent was 1.5ha and only 15% had access to one form of credit or the other. The result of the budgetary analysis revealed that the total costs of N75,970, N50,523 and N46,784 were invested in maize farming in 2018, 2019 and 2020 respectively and net farm income of N50,760, N115,117 and N134,488 were realized for the period. This implies that the maize farming business is a profitable agribusiness enterprise. The net present value was N200,042.91 at the interest rate of (20%) and with a benefit-cost ratio of 2.1 indicating that for every N1 invested in maize farming, a profit ofN1.1 kobo was made. The study concluded that household size, educational status, access to credit and cost of labour were the factors that influenced the profitability of maize farmers in the study area. Thus, it is recommended that farmers should be encouraged to form a cooperative society in order to generate funds to expand their farm enterprise. Also, maize farmers should be encouraged to practice mixed cropping in order to enhance the level of maize farm income.
 Keywords: Profitability, Production, Cost-Benefit Ratio, Net Present Value and Capital.