ASSESSMENT OF SUSTAINABILITY OF FOOD CROP PRODUCTION IN THE FADAMA OF SOUTHERN GUINEA SAVANNA OF NIGER STATE, NIGERIA.

ABSTRACT

An assessment of the sustainability of food crop production in the fadamas of southern guinea savanna of Niger State, Nigeria was carried out within the framework of small-scale farming households utilizing fadama for the cultivation of food crops. The study identified the pattern of land use and management, estimated technical efficiency, identified determinants of technical inefficiency and determined productivity and profitability of food crop production in the fadama. It also determined Indicators of Sustainable Agricultural Practices (ISAP). A two- stage simple random sampling technique was used to obtain 149 food crop farming households interviewed for the study. The data were collected between August 2004 and September 2005. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution, mean, standard deviation, bar chart, and sustainability web. Estimates of Crop Diversification Index (CDI), Nutrient Intake Index (NII), Ruthberg Index, Farm Budgeting Model, Cobb-Douglas based Stochastic Frontier Model using Maximum Likelihood Estimate (MLE) and Short Run sustainability Index (SRSI) were determined.

A typical household had seventeen persons and planted an average of 3.44 ha scattered in three plots. The major enterprises were sole crop rice and maize – based mixtures in about 0.70 ha and 2.59ha respectively. Estimated mean CDI was 0.651 implying stability of income and sustainability of mixed crop enterprises while mean NII was 1.89 showing that combined crops have low tendency to deplete soil nutrient. The Ruthberg index value of 0.393 implied that a six years fallow period may be adequate to restore natural fertility depending on the farming practices employed by households. The Indicator of Sustainable Agricultural Practices (ISAP) mean score of 0.517 implied that crop production practices of sampled households were sustainable. The study showed that methods of pest control, weed control, and soil fertility maintenance were the critical indices to monitor for the improvement of sustainability. The farm budget analysis showed that the sampled fadama food crop farming households had positive net return for all enterprises. Maize/cowpea enterprise had the highest gross margin of N25,663/ha while leafy vegetables (e.g. spinach) had the highest return on investment (2.39). The average return on investment for all the farms studied was 1.89. Mixed cropping the dominant cropping system generally adopted by the fadama farming households gave higher gross margin per hectare. The MLE of the Stochastic Frontier Model revealed the presence of short run increasing xiv return to scale with a mean technical efficiency of 58%. This result indicated the possibility of improving efficiency of sampled fadama households by 42% with the existing resources and technology. Farm size, farm experience, access to credit, educational level and extension contact had negative and significant relationship with inefficiency. This implied that increase in these variables would lead to less inefficiency. Household size had positive and significant relationship on inefficiency which implies that increase would lead to higher inefficiency. The mean SRSI of -0.14 showed an average productivity decline of 14%, which could be reversed by preventive and remedial action. In conclusion, production of food crop in the fadama of the Guinea Savanna of Niger State, Nigeria is fairly sustainable. Mixed cropping, consolidation of household resources, increased use of animal traction and organic fertilizer as well as integrated pest management is recommended In order for the foregoing to be effective, they must be accompanied by improved extension service delivery, aggressive adult education programme, regulated use of agro-chemical, improved access to credit and availability of subsidized inputs.