International Journal of Horticulture, 2018, Vol.8, No. 2, 8-15
10
Where, Y = total quantity of output (Naira); X
1
= farm size (acres); X
2
= quantity of seed (kg); X
3
= farm labour
(man/days); X
4
= fertilizer (kg); X
5
= pesticides (litres); β
o,
β
1, ……
β
5
= regression parameters
Subscript i and j refer to the i
th
vegetable produce and the j
th
input respectively and
∈
=
V
ij
–
U
ij
is the error term
(Aigner et al., 1977, Meeusen and Van den Broeck, 1977). V is the symmetric (two-sided) component, which
capture variations in output due to factors outside the control of the farmer and U is the one-sided efficiency
component called technical inefficiency effect associated with the technical efficiency of vegetable production and
it capture the variation in output due socio-economic characteristics.
1.3 Resource use efficiency
To determine the extent of efficiency in the use of the variable inputs expressed in physical quantities, the
Marginal Value Product (MVP) of land, seed, family labour, hired labour, fertilizer and pesticide were computed
and then compared with their input unit prices.
MVP
xi
=
y/
x X P
y
Where:
y/
x= Marginal Physical Product (MPP), Py= Farm gate price
2 Results and Discussion
2.1 Socio-economic characteristics of the vegetable producers
The mean age of sampled vegetable farmers was 49.43years (Table 1) which is consistent with findings of Tsoho
(2004). This implies that the farmers involved in vegetable production were adults and still within active age
bracket. This agrees with the findings of Usman and Bakar (2013) who found that vegetable production was
dominated by adults who were between the age ranges of 40-60 years of age and attributed it to labour
requirement in vegetable production. This shows that vegetable production is a business that has a future in Oyo
State. Majority (67.5%) of the respondents were married. Marital status could increase consumption pressure on
the household head and the marketable surplus of vegetable may reduce due to increase in consumption level. The
mean household size was about 7 members per household which serve as source of labour on the farm. This
corroborates Subba – Reddy, Ram, Sastry and Devi (2004) who stated that household sizes have been noted to
make family labour available for farm work and other household activities. This was affirmed also by Effiong
(2005) that large family size is the most important input for unpaid labour, especially in the rural areas. The need
for more persons to make work easier on the farm could be the reason for the high household size of the
respondents. This corroborates the findings of Obinaju and Asa, (2013) who opined that children in sub-Saharan
Africa tend to be of economic value and are desirable assets for struggling parents.
The percentage of farmers with the highest years of education was 49% suggesting that most of the farmers had
low level of education implying that vegetable farmers in Oyo State were more of illiterates than literates unlike
some other enterprises. This corroborates the findings of Baruwa (2013) who opined that years of formal
education by pineapple farmers was six years. This level of education will affect vegetable producers in
computation of loss and gain, efficient and utilization of existing inputs and their readiness to adopt improved
technologies. The primary occupation of the farmers was farming which make up a percentage of 74.8% meaning
that the farmers are more involved in farming than any other occupation. This is an indication that most of the
farmers depend on vegetable farming as their source of livelihood. Years of experience of the respondents varies.
Almost thirty-four per cent (33.5%) of the farmers had experience in the range of 6 and 15years, 32.5% of them
had 16-25 years of experience, 17.5% had 26-35%, 6% had 35 and above experience in farming occupation.
This suggests that more people tend to stay longer on vegetable production possibly due to its rewarding
economic returns. This finding is in line with Baruwa (2013) assertions. Most (69.9%) of the vegetable farmers
were male while 30.1% were female.
2.2 Costs and returns to vegetable production
The results of the budgetary analysis revealed that the total revenue of an average vegetable farmer was
₦60,017.63 (Table 2). The total variable cost incurred by an average vegetable farmer was ₦36,980.92. Labour
took the highest share of total variable costs. This agrees with other studies which indicate that vegetable
production is labour intensive, and also need equipment and other inputs such as seed, fertilizer for maximum
