CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background to the Study
Available
statistics show that agriculture is the most important Nigerian economic sector
in terms of its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), after oil. The
sector contributes about 41% to the country‟s GDP, employs about 65% of the
total population and provides employment to about 80% of the rural population.
Agriculture is a major source of food and meat. It is estimated that some 25
million hectares of land are cultivated each year by small holders for food
production and hence the sector plays an important role in rural livelihood. It
is estimated that it accounts for about 70% of rural household‟s total incomes
(Ogen, 2003). Agricultural growth in Nigeria is increasingly recognized to be
central to sustained improvement in economic development. The sector plays a
crucial role in food security, poverty alleviation and human development chain
in Nigeria (Aye and Oboh, 2006). According to the Department of Agriculture,
Forestry and Fisheries (2012), Smallholder farmers are defined in various ways
depending on the context, country and even ecological zone. It is often
interchangeably used with „small-scale, „resource poor‟ and sometimes „peasant
farmer‟. In general terms smallholder only refers to their limited resource
endowment relative to other farmers in the sector. It can be defined as those
farmers owning small-based plots of land on which they grow subsistence crops
and one or two cash crops relying almost exclusively on family labour.
One
of the main characteristics of the production systems of smallholder farmers
are simple outdated technologies, low returns and high seasonal labour
fluctuations. These smallholder farmers differ in individual characteristics,
farm size, resource distribution between food and cash crops, livestock and
off-farm activities, their use of external inputs and hired labour, the
proportion of food crops sold and household expenditure patterns (DAFF, 2012).
In Nigeria, small-holder farmers constitute about 80% of the farming population
(Awoke and Akorji, 2004). According to them, small-holder farmers are those
farmers who produce on a small scale, not involved in commercial agriculture
but produce on a subsistence level, and cultivate less than five hectares
annually on the average. Small-holder and family farming agriculture remains
the key and leading sector in economic development of many developing countries
in the world (Quan, 2011). According to Quan (2011), in addition to producing
staple food for domestic markets, small-holder farmers produce larger share of
traditional export in these countries, hence, the economy of many developing
countries is still reliant on small-holder agriculture. The agricultural sector
in Nigeria is dominated by small-holder farmers who produce the bulk of the
food requirements in the country (Asogwa, Umeh and Penda, 2011). Sesame (Sesamum
indicum L.) otherwise known as sesamum or benniseed, a member of the family
padaliaceae, is one of the most ancient oil seed known to mankind. Sesame plays
a major role in human nutrition. Most of the sesame seeds are used for oil
extraction and the rest are used for edible purposes (El Khier, Ishag and
Yagoub, 2008). Sesame is widely grown in the northern and central part of
Nigeria as a minor crop initially until in 1974 when it became a major cash
earner in many northern states such as Benue, Nasarawa, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina,
Plateau and Yobe States and in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria
(NAERLS, 2010). Sesame is commonly grown by small-holder farmers in the major
producing States of Benue, Nasarawa and Jigawa States. Sesame has been reported
to be a typical crop for farmers in the developing countries (Bennet, 2011).
This is because it has deep roots and is well adapted to withstand dry
conditions. It grows on relatively poor soils in climate generally unsuitable
for other crops, and so it is widely valued for its nutritional and financial
yield. It is well suited to small-holder farming with a relatively short
harvest cycle of 90 – 140 days, allowing other crops to be grown in the field
(Chemonics, 2002; Naturland, 2002; Nigeria‟s Harvest, 2009) and often
intercropped with other grains. This makes it favourable to Nigerian farmers.
Production can thus be sustained by small-holder farmers under minimum
management with average yield of 700kg per hectare (Nigeria‟s Harvest, 2009).
The three major languages in Nigeria, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba call it Ridi,
Isasa and Ekuku respectively.
1.2
Problem Statement
Sesame
seed is an important component of Nigeria‟s agricultural export (Chemonics,
2002). It currently ranks second to cocoa in terms of export volume in Nigeria
and is fast becoming prominent among non-oil exports because it is one of the
few cash crops that can earn the country foreign exchange. Attributed to its
high demand, any quantity of the product offered to the market is easily sold.
Although it is quite extensively cultivated, it is mainly a small-holder crop,
often intercropped with others crops (Abu et al. 2011). Available
records showed that Nigeria exported 140,800 tonnes of sesame seed worth $139
million in 2010. It was also recorded that Nigeria earned N210 billion from the
export of sesame seed products in the first half of 2012 (Ciuci, 2013).
This
increasing demand for sesame seed provides Nigeria an opportunity to increase
its production to meet the international demand for the commodity. Market
opportunities exist in Korea, India, the Middle East and Mediterranean
countries where sesame seed oil is in very high demand (Ciuci, 2013). This
therefore provides Nigeria with the opportunity to broaden its market base.
Currently only about 300,000 hectares of the estimated 3.5 million hectares of
Nigeria‟s 90 million hectares of arable land that is suitable for cultivating
sesame seed is presently being used in the production of sesame seed
(Tunde-Akintunde et al. 2012). By investing more in sesame seed
production, the Nigerian government could increase annual revenue from sesame
seed export from N21 billion to about N86 billion annually (Ciuci, 2013).
The
realization of the potential of sesame production in the acquisition of foreign
currency for the country made increased production of the crop a prominent
priority in the Agricultural Transformation Agenda of the Federal Government of
Nigeria. To this end, farmers are being encouraged to produce sesame in all
agro-ecological zones of the country. Nigeria has the technology to produce
significant output of sesame for export in view of the yield potentials of the
varieties released to farmers (NCRI, 2012). However, some studies on sesame
indicated a wide gap between potential and actual yields obtained (RMRDC, 2004,
Olowe, 2007; NAERLS, 2010; Kanton et al., 2013). The NAERLS (2010) reported
actual sesame yield of 300kg/ha against potential yield of between 700-1,000
kg/ha which is below the world average yield of 4,900kg/ha and four times lower
than the average yield of other oil seed crops like groundnut and soybean.
Manyong et al. (2005) reaffirmed actual sesame yield of 0.55 tonnes/ha
against a potential yield of 2 tonnes/ha with a yield gap of 264% for
North-Central Nigeria. Nigeria‟s inability to fully tap into the economic
potentials of the crop might be a reflection of its inefficient nature in
sesame production. One of the major factors responsible for low agricultural
productivity in Nigeria is farmers‟ limited access to production inputs which
are necessary for attaining a high level of production (Nwaru, 2004). Amaza and
Olayemi (2002) observed that crop farmers mostly carry out their production
under conditions involving the use of inefficient tools and unimproved seed
varieties and therefore, maximum efficiency is elusive to them. Productivity
according to Coelli et al. (1998) is a measure of farm performance which
indicates whether a farm uses the best available technology to obtain maximum
output from a given set of inputs. On the other hand, technical efficiency is
the ratio of total output to total inputs; the larger the amount of inputs per
unit of output, the smaller the size this ratio becomes (Ohajianya and
Onyenweaku, 2001).
Sesame
is extensively cultivated in Benue State but there is little information on the
productivity as well as the efficiency of resources used and profitability. One
way farmers can raise productivity is improving the efficiency within the limit
of the existing resource base and technology (Udoh, 2005). Productivity is
reduced in the presence of technical inefficiency whereas the more efficient
the firm, the higher its productivity, ceteris paribus (Kumbhakar, 2004).
Boosting sesame production would require that farm resources be use efficiently
since efficiency in the use of the production inputs is essential for optimum
production. Therefore, there is the need to assess the level of efficiency of
resources used in agricultural production in general and sesame production in
particular. This therefore, necessitates answers to the following research
questions:
i.
What are the socio-economic characteristics of sesame producers?
ii.
Is sesame production profitable?
iii.
Are the resources efficiently utilized?
iv.
What are the constraints associated with sesame production in Benue State?
Department: Agricultural Economics
Format: Microsoft Word
Format: Microsoft Word
Chapters: 1 - 5, Preliminary Pages, Abstract, References, Questionnaire
Delivery: Email
Delivery: Email
No. of Pages: 100
Price: 3000 NGN
In Stock
No comments:
Post a Comment
Add Comment