Abstract

Analysis of productivity of rice farmers in North-Central Nigeria was carried out with the use of secondary data collected from 1992 to 2016 from data banks and Federal Ministry of Agriculture Nigeria. Malmquist Total Factor Productivity Index (MTFPI) using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), was used to empirically analyse efficiency change, technical progress and total factor productivity growth of the rice production, while Tobit regression was used to analyse the determinants of the productivity in the study area. The results of the MTFPI analysis revealed that rice contributed 0.1% of technical efficiency change to productivity growth over the period studied. The mean technological change indicated 2.3% improvement in production technologies of rice to achieve the productivity growth of 2.2%. Tobit regression showed rainfall, amount of credit borrowed and capital-labour ratio had significant and positive relationship with the crop’s productivity at 10%, 1% and 5% level of significance, respectively. These imply that increase in these factors led to increase in rice productivity over the period studied. Government policy (ATA) had significant but negative relationship with the productivity of rice at 10% probability level. Rice import had significant but negative relationship at about (5%) with rice productivity in the study area. Thus, increase in rice importation led to reduction in rice productivities. The study recommends training on farm practices, techniques and proper allocation of production resources to achieve productivity growth in the study area. Policies on public security and insurance of farms against risk of all kind will increase productivity.

Key Words: Productivity trend, Malmquist Index, Capital-Labour ratio