International Journal of Horticulture, 2018, Vol.8, No. 2, 8-15
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production (Nurah, 1999; Ramaila et al., 2011; Ash, 2011). The gross margin fixed inputs used for vegetable
production which included land rent, cutlass, hoe, rake, sprayer, watering can, wheel barrow, knife, basket, sack,
bucket, spade, pumping machine and file, was ₦18,207.16 and total cost which include cost of fixed inputs and
that of variable inputs was ₦55,188.08. The net income, also known as profit of an average vegetable farmer was
₦4,829.55.
Table 1 Distribution of Respondents’ Socio- Economic Characteristics
Variable
Frequency
Percentage (%)
Age (Years)
< 30
30
15
31-40
33
16.5
41-50
67
33.5
51-60
44
22.0
61-70
26
13.0
Marital Status
Single
30
15.0
Married
135
67.5
Divorced
15
7.5
Widow
13
6.5
Widower
7
3.5
Years of Education
< 6.00
72
36.0
7.00- 10.00
30
15.0
11.00-14.00
98
49.0
Years of Experience
< 5
21
10.5
6- 15
67
33.5
16- 25
65
32.5
26-35
35
17.5
36- 45
12
6.0
Sex
Male
135
69.9
Female
Total
65
200
30.1
100
Note: Field Survey 2016
From the above calculation, other profitable ratios were calculated and they include: Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR)
was 1.09; Expense Structure Ratio (ESR) is 0.49, Rate of Returns which is 0.09; Gross Margin Ratio is 0.92. The
rate of return which is also known as efficiency level is 0.09. This is known as the enterprise economic efficiency
and it implies that ₦1 spent by the farmer on vegetable production, ₦0.09 is realized as profit. Improved
management can increase profitability (Afolami and Ayinde, 2001)
Also, labour efficiency was calculated as Net farm Income per man day which gave ₦1,802.10. Crop Efficiency
was also calculated as crop value per acre which gave ₦44,401.61 and Net Crop Income per acre gave
₦14,995.26.
2.3 Resource use efficiency
The marginal value products of all the resources were less than their prices (MVP < MFC). For labour, farm size
and fertilizer, seed and even pesticides had ratios of MVP to MFC greater than one, showing that they were
underutilized (Table 3). Increasing farm sizes will lead to improvement in use of labour, fertilizer used, seed and
even pesticide and encourage optimal utilization of resources. However, to attain optimal allocation of the
resources in vegetable production there is need to reduce the level of resource use until the marginal value product
and the marginal factor cost of each resource are at equilibrium (i.e. MVP=MFC).
