Productivity and Efficiency of Groundnut Farming in Northern Taraba State, Nigeria

Abstract: The research was carried out to examine the Productivity and Efficiency of Groundnut Farming in Northern Taraba State.  The objectives of the study were to:, determine the technical efficiency of groundnut farmers, analyse the influence of some socio-economic characteristics of farmers on technical efficiency. Data were collected with the aid of structured questionnaire administered to 150 randomly selected farmers in the study area.  Data generated from the questionnaire were analysed using Stochastic Frontier Production Function. The study revealed that the variance of parameters gamma (γ) and sigma-squared (δ²) of the frontier production function were statistically significant at 1 percent level of significance.  The variables indicate positive and significant at 10 percent level of significance for seed and fertilizer, while farm size and family labour were statistically significant at 1 percent respectively.  Mean technical efficiency index was 0.97, while minimum and maximum technical efficiency were 0.63 and 0.99 respectively.