Efficiency of Intercropping System under Smallholder Farmers in Osun State, Nigeria
2019
O., Babatunde R. | E., Omoniwa A. | D., Oluyemi O.
Recently, the constant rise in population growth has resulted in increased pressure on available agricultural land. This has given rise to greater land use intensification and cropdiversification by smallholder farmers. However, information is scarce about the economic efficiency of the system in the Osun State. The study was carried out to assess the technical and allocative efficiencies of intercropping systems in Osun State of Nigeria. A three-stage random sampling technique was used to select a total of 120 smallholder farmers across six local communities namely Owode, Ologede, Ifewara, Iperindo, Ilerin and Odundun from which responses were solicited with the aid of a questionnaire. The descriptive and stochastic production frontier was used to analyze the data gotten from the smallholders. The results showed that the average technical efficiency index was 67%, while allocative efficiency was 13%. The factors that significantly influenced the production were farm size, quantity of fertilizer used as well as the cost of other inputs. While those that significantly influence the technical and allocative efficiencies of intercropping systems in the study area were the educational status, household size in adult equivalent and membership to cooperatives. It is, therefore, recommended that farmers require training on the appropriate skills required to operate an efficient intercropping system. This can be done through the cooperative societies. This will help the farmers in the efficient allocation of resources available to them.
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