Effects of policy factors on allocative efficiency of Irrigated rice production under different land Administration institutions around Dadin Kowa Irrigation Scheme, Nigeria

This study analyzed the effects of policy factors of land administration on the allocative efficiency of irrigated rice production under  different land administration institutions around the Dadin Kowa Irrigation Scheme (DKIS), Nigeria. Three hundred and twenty rice  farmers using irrigation were selected from five land administration institutions in the DKIS area using multi-stage sampling technique.  Data were collected using structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, the stochastic frontier model, and multiple linear regression  models were used to analyze the data. Allocative efficiency (AE) differed under the various institutions, but generally the result revealed  that farm size, seed, fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides were positive and significant (p<0.01) while labour which was negative and  significant (p<0.01). The inefficiency model for AE revealed that on the aggregate, age, sex, and household size were all negative but  significant (p<0.01), while, education, extension contact, irrigated rice farming experience, cooperative society membership, access to  improved seeds, and distance to markets, were all positive and significant at various probability levels. Partnership in land use as a land  policy factor was significant under both DKIS (p<0.05) and traditional (p<0.01), while poor land governance was significant (p<0.05) when  institutions were aggregated. The study recommended that improving farmer cooperatives and agricultural extension can improve  farmers’ allocative efficiency. Similarly, land governance as well as partnership in land use as factors of land administration should be  accorded priority in strategic policy planning and implementation of programmes towards improving the productivity of irrigated   agriculture and the livelihoods of people in the study area.