A Study on Relationship between Technical Efficiency and Climate Change Manifestations among Sesame Farmers in Benue State, Nigeria

Abstract

The present study aims to analyse the relationship between technical efficiency and the adverse effect of climate change manifestations among sesame farmers in Benue State, Nigeria. A combination of purposive and random sampling techniques was used to select 372 sesame producers. Data were analysed by using the Cobb-Douglas stochastic frontier production function and Spearman correlation. The stochastic production function showed that farm size, seed, fertilizer, agrochemical and family labour significantly affect sesame output. The study also showed that education, farming experience, household size, access to extension; access to credit, access to market and membership to farmer association were positively related to technical efficiency of sesame farmers. The result further showed that the average technical efficiency of sesame farmers was 0.53. The result also revealed that there is a significant negative relationship between the level of adverse effects of climate change manifestation and technical efficiency among sesame farmers in the study area. It was therefore recommended that readily available farming inputs and subsidies should be entrenched. Credit facility, extension services and good market access should be provided to farmers. Education, information and training of farmers to adapt to climate change by changing their farming practices such as bush burning, de-forestation, rain-fed agriculture and land tenure systems should be encouraged.