EFFECTS OF FADAMA III PROJECT ON RURAL RICE FARMERS IN YOLA -NORTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA

The study assessed the effects of Fadama lll on rural rice farmers in Yola-North LGA of Adamawa State, Nigeria. The objectives are to; described the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, Estimate the cost and returns of Fadama and non-Fadama participants, to assess the change in output and to assess the change in income among the respondents. One hundred and twenty four (124) respondents were selected from beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of the project through multi stage and purposive random sampling. Structured questionnaire were used to obtained data on the Socio-economic characteristics, Cost and Returns, Change in output and Change in income. The data were analysed using Descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings reveals that majority of the respondents were males (71.4%) and married (69.6}.These categories of respondents are in their productive ages (30 – 39 and 40 – 49) capable of engaging in farming activities and they account for 64 % whom are the majority. Revenue generated by the beneficiaries is higher than that of the non-beneficiaries as revealed by the Gross margin analysis, likewise the T-test showed the mean Income of the beneficiaries was higher compared to that of the non-beneficiaries even though the difference was not significant at p=0.05 .Despite the fact that the project had made little impact on the living conditions of the beneficiaries, it is recommended that it should be continue in order to ensure sustained income and revenue generation.</jats:p

FARM LEVEL EFFICIENCY OF RUBBER AS A PERENNIAL CROP USING COBB-DOUGLASS PRODUCTION FRONTIER

This paper examines the parametric efficiency analysis of rubber production in Malaysia using Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA). The 3 different sample sizes used were 307, 206 and 101 for all-age, matured-age and old-age categories respectively. The results of the study reveals that the mean values of the rubber yield under all-age category was 3,638.28kg/ha while that of the matured-age and old-age categories 4,611.34kg/ha and 1,653.61kg/ha respectively. The Maximum likelihood estimates (MLE) results revealed that 5 independent variables were significant under all-age and matured-age categories while the old-age category has all the independent variables significant. With regards to elasticity of production for rubber task, 1% increase in number of rubber tree/ha leads to an increase in 0.76, 0.70 and 0.61 per cents in all-age, matured-age and old-age crop categories respectively. The coefficients values of the sigma squared for the all-age, matured-age and old-age were 0.14, 0.26 and 0.03 respectively, while the gamma values for the respective crops age categories stood at 1.00, 1.00 and 0.5. The coefficients values of all-age crops category showed that 3 variables were statistically significant at 1% level of significance. 2 variables were having negative coefficients while the remaining 1 had positive coefficient. The mean technical efficiency scores for all-age, matured-age and old-age crops categories were found to be respectively 0.70, 0.77 and 0.72. None of the crops age categories have farms on the frontier. The study concludes that Race and marital status were found to be very critical in determining efficiency of all-age crop category. Also, the matured-age crops are better than the other two crop-age categories in terms of efficiency. Also, both the matured-age and the all-age crop categories are experiencing decreasing return to scale of the production process while the old-age category has an increasing return to scale production process. The study recommends downsizing some of the inputs especially farm size, fertilizer application rate as well as farm tools.</jats:p

ANALYSIS OF TECHNICAL, ALLOCATIVE AND ECONOMIC EFFICIENCIES OF YAM PRODUCERS IN GANYE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA

The study investigated the technical, Allocative and economics efficiencies of yam producers in Ganye Local government Area, Adamawa State, Nigeria. Combinations of purposive and random sampling techniques were employed using 100 famers from five different wards of the local government. In the first place, five wards were selected and used for this study and twenty farmers were selected from each ward, making a total of 100 famers, twenty. The analytical tool used to achieve the objectives of this study was Data Envelopment Analysis. The results of the study revealed that 57% of the farmers had technical efficiency of 0.81 and above while 43% of the farmers operate at less than 0.81 efficiency level. The mean technical efficiency for the 100 sampled farmers in the study area was 0.78. The farmer with the best practice has a technical efficiency of 1.00 while 0.37 is for the least efficient farmers. This implies that on the average, output fall by 0% from the maximum possible level of 1.00 due to technical inefficiency. The mean allocative efficiency was 0.98. The result indicates that average yam farmer in the state would enjoy cost saving of about 5% while allocative inefficient farmer will have an efficiency gain of 95% to attain the level of most efficient farmer among the respondents. The mean economic efficiency was 0.77. The farmer with the best practice has an economic efficiency of 1.0 while 0.08 was for the least efficient farmers. This implies that on the average, output fall by 52% from the maximum possible level due to inefficiency. Finally, among the constraints identified in the study area, the majority of the respondent attested to the fact that high cost of inputs, transportation problem, lack of credit facilities and storage/preservation problem were the major constraints they faced in yam production in the area. The study concludes that yam farmers in the study area have achieved absolute efficiency in the use of variable inputs. It was found that yam production in the study area is profitable. </jats:p

TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF COWPEA MARKETING IN MUBI NORTH

This study was carried to analyze the technical efficiency of cowpea marketing in Mubi North. Both primary and secondary data were used. 120 questionnaires were administered only 74 were respondent to. The results were analyzed using data envelopment analysis (DEA) which involves constant return to scale (CCR) model and variable return to scale (BCC) model.  The result shows that majority of the respondents are male. And that majority about 41% of them fall within the age of 31-40 years. The Marital status of the respondents showed that majority about 73% of the marketers are married. And the result on Household size of the respondents revealed that majority about 83% of the marketers’ household size falls within 2-11 members. Level of education of the marketers showed that about 69% of them received low level formal education and majority with 2 to 17-years’ experience on cowpea marketing. majority of them about 69% are formally educated in one form or the other while 31% are informally educated. Income level of the respondents showed that more than half 54% of the marketers earned an income of 15,000 and below while 46% earned above 15,000. Results on the marketing experience of the respondents showed that majority of them have 2-6 years of experience. The results show that about 70% of the marketers belong to a cooperative while 30% do not. The study also delved into the challenges experienced by cowpea marketers. Based on the envelopment analysis result of cowpea marketing efficiency it revealed that socio-economic characteristics of the respondents has positive influence on the cowpea marketing efficiency. It provided suggestions for the Government and NGOS to implement that will curb these challenges.</jats:p

ASSESSMENT OF TUYIL PARACETAMOL PRODUCTION PROCESS: A STATISTICAL QUALITY CONTROL TECHNIQUES

This research deals with the application of statistical quality control techniques on process control of paracetamol production of Tuyil Pharmaceutical Company with the aim of estimating the control limits and investigate whether the production process is under statistical control. The data used in this research was collected on two measurable quality characteristics of content and weight of paracetamol from 2015-2018. The Mean, Range and EWMA-chart together with process capability analysis were employed for measuring the production process. The result obtained from the analysis on the content of paracetamol, it was observed that for X-bar and R-Chart one point from the observations is out of the control limits while for the EWMA chart all the observations are within control and capable of improving the production process. The analysis also reveals that on the weight of paracetamol, the Mean, Range and EWMA-chart together with process capability analysis are within control and capable of improving the process of production. it was concluded that for the weight of paracetamol is statistically stable and under control while that of the content is partially stable as one point from the observations fall outside the control limits and this could be due to a small shift in the production process which is caused by chance causes of variation such as temperature, room vibration and so on. It is recommended that the company needs to take proper caution so as to improve their production process in order to meet up with consumer’s requirement.</jats:p

Comparative Study of Lee Carter and Arch Model in Modelling Female Mortality in Nigeria

Using Nigeria mortality data from 2009 to 2020, this study compares and contrasts how well the Lee-Carter and ARCH models performed. Singular value decomposition (SVD) method, Langrage multiplier test, and autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (ARCH) effects were examined. Five (5) different ARIMA and ARCH models were fitted together with their criteria, i.e., AIC and BIC in order to determine the best model for Nigeria mortality data. ARIMA (0,1,0) had the lowest AIC and BIC values, and was determined to be the best ARIMA model. The mortality index   is then modelled using ARIMA (0,1,0) and plugged back into the Lee-Carter model to predict the future mortality rate. Also ARCH (1) turned out to be the best ARCH model among other candidate models. The performance of Lee-Carter model and ARCH model was compared using error measures. Results obtained revealed that the ARCH model had the minimum RMSE and MAPE when compared with the Lee-carter model, therefore it was concluded that the ARCH model performs better than the Lee-Carter model on Nigeria mortality data.</jats:p