Farming Techniques, Environmental Challenges, and Technical Efficiency of Sweet Potato Production in Abia State, Nigeria
محورهای موضوعی : Farm Managementنمدی اهریم 1 , گلوری بن چندو 2 , استفن اونیوگوچا 3 , اوبون اسین 4 , امکا اوسوجو 5 , ملیسا اوکوارا 6
1 - Department of Agricultural Economics, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria
2 - Department of Agricultural Economics, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria
3 - Department of Agricultural Economics, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria
4 - Department of Agricultural Economics, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria
5 - Department of Agricultural Economics, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria
6 - Department of Agricultural Economics, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria
کلید واژه: stochastic frontier, Efficiency, Technology, environment, Sweet potato production, Abia State,
چکیده مقاله :
Viable sweet potato production is hard to achieve with indiscriminate use of farm inputs, resulting to wastage and environmental damages, as consequences are common problems of arable crop farming in Abia State. Issues arising from farm input use and their corresponding implications for environment called for a study on suitable farming practices and farm-specific technical efficiency for optimal resource use in sweet potato production in Abia State. Data were obtained from 156 sweet potatoe farmers through a multistage sampling technique using a structured questionaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean, relative frequency distribution, and the stochastic production frontier. Results showed that using inorganic fertilizer (65.378%) under rainfed production system with a frequent bush burning (66.67%) and low liming (5.8%) were very common practices with leaching, fragile soil, erosion, flooding, and soil acidity as consequences. Mixed cropping (63.46%) with improved varieties like TIS 8164 (71.2%) and 0087 (64.1%) were copping measures to some environmental challenges. Maximum Likelihood Estimates (MLE) showed a decreasing return to a scale of 0.236. The implication is that an increase in farm size and fertilizer application can significantly lead to a less than 0.06538 and 0.08142 proportionate increase in output of sweet potato respectively, or reduces it by less than 0.00413, with interest on borrowed capital. The gamma (0.0403) was less than unity and was significant at p < 0.05, implying that about 4.30% discripancies in observed and frontier output was due to technical inefficiencies of sweet potato farmers. The wide disparity in farmers’ technical efficiencies ranged from 0.298% to 99.4%, and a mean of 47.1% suggested a need to bridge the gap. Hence, a reduction in household size, farming experience, and sourcing of planting materials from NRCRI or IITA is believed to increase farmers’ technical inefficiency, which can be reduced with age and formal educational level of sweet Potato farmers in the area. All in all, the results suggest that reducing bush burning but increasing liming as well as including organic soil ammendments and irrigation practicies, when combined with the use of young and educated farmers, can reduce environmental damages and also increase farmers’ technical efficiency when it comes to sweet potato production in the area.
دستیابی به تولید موفقیت‌آمیز سیب‌زمینی شیرین درصورت استفادة بی‌رویه از نهاده‌های کشاورزی دشوار خواهد بود و باعث اتلاف و صدمات زیست‌محیطی خواهد شد همچنانکه کشاورزی در ایالت آبیا با این مشکلات مواجه است. مسائل ناشی از مصرف نهاده‌های کشاورزی و پیامدهای آنها برای محیط زیست نیازمند مطالعه‌ای بر روی شیوه‌های زراعی مناسب و کارایی فنی مزرعه‌ای برای استفادة بهینه از منابع در تولید سیب زمینی شیرین در ایالت آبیا بود. داده‌های این تحقیق از 156 زارع سیب زمینی شیرین به کمک روش نمونه‌گیری چندمرحله‌ای با استفاده از یک پرسشنامة ساختارمند جمع‌آوری شدند. سپس این اطلاعات توسط آمار توصیفی مانند میانگین، توزیع فراوانی نسبی و تحلیل مرزی تولید تصادفی تحلیل شدند. نتایج نشان داد که استفاده از کود غیرآلی (378/65 درصد) در سیستم تولید دیم با استفاده از سوزاندن مکرر بته‌ها (67/66 درصد) و استفاده از مقادیر پایین آهک (8/5 درصد) رایج‌ترین شیوه‌های زراعی هستند که نتایجی چون آبشویی، شکنندگی خاک، فرسایش، سیلاب و اسیدی شدن خاک را در پی دارد. کشت مختلط (46/63 درصد) با ارقام بهبودیافته‌ای چون TIS 8164 (2/71 درصد) و TIS 0087 (1/64 درصد) اقداماتی برای مقابله با برخی چالش‌های زیست‌محیطی‌اند. برآورد درست‌نمایی بیشینه (MLE) حاکی از بازده به مقیاس 236/0 است که در حال کاهش می‌باشد. این موضوع نشان می‌دهد که افزایش اندازة مزرعه و مصرف کود می‌تواند به شکل معنی‌داری به ترتیب باعث افزایش متناسب کمتر از 06538/0 و 08142/0 در خروجی سیب زمینی شیرین بشود یا می‌توان آن را با بهرة روی سرمایة استقراضی به اندازة‌کمتر از 004138/0 کاهش دهد. گاما (0403/0) کمتر از واحد و در سطح p < 0.05 معنی‌دار بود که نشان می‌دهد حدود 30/4 درصد ناهمخواهی بین خروجی مشاهده‌شده و خروجی مرزی به خاطر عدم‌کارایی فنی کشاورزان سیب زمینی شیرین بود. ناهمخواهی گسترده در کارایی فنی کشاورزان بین 298/0 درصد تا 4/99 درصد متغیر بود و میانگین 1/47 درصد نشاندهندة نیاز به پر کردن این شکاف است. درنتیجه، به نظر می‌رسد کاهش اندازة خانوار، سابقة کشاورزی و منبع‌یابی مواد گیاهی از NRCRI یا IITA می‌تواند باعث افزایش عدم‌کارایی فنی کشاورزان بشود درحالی‌که این عدم‌کارایی را می‌توان با سن و سطح آموزش رسمی کشاورزان سیب زمینی شیرین در منطقه کاهش داد. به طور کلی، نتایج نشان می‌دهد که کاهش سوزاندن بته‌ها اما افزایش استفاده از آهک در کنار استفاده از افزودنی‌های آلی به خاک و آبیاری اگر با کشاورزان جوان و آموزش‌دیده همراه شود می‌تواند باعث کاهش صدمات زیست‌محیطی و همچنین افزایش کارایی فنی کشاورزان سیب زمینی شیرین در منطقه بشود.
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