ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF GROUNDNUT PRODUCTION IN KONTAGORA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF NIGER STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study assessed the economics analysis of groundnut production in Kontagora Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling technique were adopted which involves the purposive selection of Kontagora and simple random selection of farmers from four villages were used to collect primary data from 80 respondents from the study area with the aid of a well-structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, farm budgetary analysis, Cobb-Douglas production function were used as analytical tools for the study. The analysis found that groundnut production is profitable, the farm budgetary analysis shows total revenue of ₦170,283.9 and net farm income of ₦35,411.3 per hectare and a profit of ₦36,429/ha Cobb-Douglas production function gave us R² value of 0.393. Finding shows that seed, pesticide and labour exert significant difference in determining the output of the groundnut farmers.  The result of the resource use efficiency showed that land, pesticide and herbicide were underutilized, seed, fertilizer and labour were over utilized. Therefore recommendation such as provision of credit facilities, provision of seeds at subsidize rate and extension agents in other to create awareness should be provided and the adoption of improved technologies and good agricultural practices.