




































 

 

 
1 

† Corresponding author 
© 2017 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF SWAMP RICE FARMERS IN EBONYI SOUTH 
AGRICULTURAL ZONE, EBONYI STATE, NIGERIA 

 

Ugwu J.N1 --- Mbah G.O2 --- Chidiebere-Mark, N.3 --- Tim-Ashama A4 --- Ohajianya D.O5† --- Okwara 

M.O6 
1Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu State, Nigeria 
2Department of Rural Sociology and Extension, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria  
3Department of Agricultural Economics & Extension, Imo State University, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria 
4Department of Agricultural Science, AlvanIkoku Federal College of Education, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria    
5,6Department of Agricultural Economics, Federal University of Technology Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria 

 

ABSTRACT 

Technical efficiency of resource use is imperative for increased rice production in Nigeria. The study attempted to determine the 

technical efficiency of swamp rice farmers in Ebonyi south  agricultural zone, Ebonyi state, Nigeria. Specifically, the study 

analyzed the socio-economic characteristics of the swamp rice farmers, determined the technical efficiency of the swamp rice 

farmers as well as the distribution of technical efficiency among swamp rice farmers in the study area. Purposive and random 

sampling technique were used to select sixty respondents for the study. Structured questionnaire was the instrument of data 

collection. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and stochastic production frontier. Results showed that the 

swamp rice farmers were in their active age (47years), predominantly male (70%), had average education (8 years spent in 

school) and married (86.7%). The maximum likelihood estimates showed that the variables of farm size, seed and labour were 

determinants of technical efficiency. The mean level of technical efficiency was 75.9% suggesting that an estimated 24.1% of the 

output is lost due to technical inefficiency in swamp rice production. 

Keywords: Technical efficiency, Swamp rice, Stochastic frontier. 

 

Received: 30 July 2016/ Revised: 17 December 2016/ Accepted: 2 January 2017/ Published: 21 January 2017  

 

Contribution/ Originality 

This study contributes in the existing literature on technical efficiency of Swamp Rice Farmers in Nigeria. The 

paper’s primary contribution is finding that the mean level of technical efficiency was 75.9% suggesting that an 

estimated 24.1% of the output is lost due to technical inefficiency in swamp rice production. 

 

1. INTRODUCTION 

Rice is one of the world’s most important staple food crop consumed by more than half of the world population 

with over 40million people in Africa [1]. In sub-Saharan Africa, West Africa is the leading producer and consumer 

of rice and in 2008, Nigeria accounted for 48 % of the total rice output in West Africa [1]. Nigeria is endowed with 

favorable ecologies for rice cultivation and rice is cultivated in all the agro-ecological zones of Nigeria. 

However continued fluctuation in rice production in the country is an indication of limited capacity of the 

Nigeria rice economy to match domestic demand which can be attributed to the inability of the rice farmers to 

obtain maximum output from the resources committed to the enterprise [2]. The limited capacity of Nigeria rice 

sector to meet the domestic demand could be attributed to low resource productivity.  Domestic rice production 

Current Research in Agricultural Sciences 
2017 Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 1-6 
ISSN(e): 2312-6418 
ISSN(p): 2313-3716 
DOI: 10.18488/journal.68/2017.4.1/68.1.1.6 

© 2017 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Current Research in Agricultural Sciences, 2017, 4(1): 1-6 

  

 
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© 2017 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

lags behind the demand for the commodity and central to this explanation is the issue of technical efficiency of the 

rice farmers in the use of resources. Rice production in Nigeria is mainly in the hands of small-scale resource poor 

farmers who are still using unimproved farming methods.  Increased production of rice therefore can be achieved if 

farmers efficiently utilize the available resources at their disposal. In a production context, technical efficiency 

relates to the degree to which a farmer produces the maximum feasible output from a given bundle of inputs (an 

output oriented measure), or uses the minimum feasible level of inputs to produce a given level of output (an input 

oriented measure). 

This study attempted to determine the technical efficiency of swamp rice farmers in Ebonyi South Agricultural 

Zone in Ebonyi State, Nigeria.  It specifically analyzed the socio-economic characteristics of the swamp rice farmers, 

determined the technical efficiency of the swamp rice farmers as well as the distribution of technical efficiency 

among swamp rice farmers in the study area.  

 

2. METHODOLOGY  

The study area was Afikpo South and Ohaozara Local Government area in Ebonyi South agricultural zone, 

Ebonyi state, Nigeria. Ebonyi south agricultural zone comprises Afikpo North, Afikpo South, Ivo, Ohaozara and 

Onicha Local Government Areas.Afikpo South and Ohaozara were Afikpo South Local Government is comprised of 

the Edda clan. It is bordered by Unwana to the East, Akaeze to the West, Amasiri to the north and Afikpo to the 

north-east and Ohafia to the south, It has an area of 378km2 and a population of 157,072 persons [3]. Ohaozara 

Local Government area has an area of 12km2 and a population of 148,626 people [3]. The climate of Ebonyi south 

agricultural zone is characterized by bimodal rainfall with peaks in July and September. The people are 

predominantly farmers. The main crops produced are rice, yam, maize, groundnut, palm, sugar cane, etc. the area 

boast of a tourist site, Ndibe beach in Afikpo. Apart from farming, the inhabitants also engage in other occupations 

like trading and manufacturing. 

A multistage purposive and random sampling technique was adopted in the selection of respondents for the 

study. Firstly, Afikpo South and Ohaozara Local Government area were purposively selected based on the 

dominance of rice farming in these LGA’s. Second, two communities were randomly selected from each of the Local 

Government to give a total of four communities. Thirdly, three villages were randomly selected from each of the 

four communities to give a total of twelve communities for the study. A list of swamp rice contact farmers was 

obtained from Ebonyi State ADP (EBADEP) office at Onu-Ebonyi. Lastly, five farmers were randomly selected 

from the list of Swamp rice farmers to give a total of sixty farmers for the study.  Structured questionnaire was 

administered to the respondents. Descriptive statistics and stochastic production frontier function was used to 

analyze data for the study.   

 

2.1. Model Specification 

The stochastic production frontier function allows for the simultaneous estimation of individual technical 

efficiency of the respondent farmers as well as determinants of technical efficiency [4]. It is expressed as follows;  

Y = f ( Xi;ß) exp (Vi – U) , I = 1,2,3….N                      …… (1) 

Where;  

Y: is the output ith enterprise (farm) 

X: is the vector input quantities used by the ith enterprise 

ß is a vector of unknown parameters to be estimated 

f( ):  represents an appropriate function ( e.g Cobb-Douglas, Translog, etc.) 

Vi:  is a symmetric error, which accounts for random variation in output due to factors such as weather, disease 

outbreak, measurement errors etc, which are beyond the farmer’s control.   



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© 2017 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

Uiis a non-negative random variable representing inefficiency in production relative to the stochastic frontier,  

that is aone sided error component.  

The Viare random effects which is assumed to be N----(O; δv2) and independent of the Ui which are non-

negative truncation of the N-----(O; δu2) distribution (i.e half-normal distribution or exponential or gamma 

distributions). The technical efficiency of an individual enterprise is defined in terms of the ratio of the observed 

output to the corresponding frontier output, given the available technology.  

Technical efficiency (TE) = Y*/Yi= f(Xiß) exp (Vi-Ui) / f(Xiß) exp (Vi) exp (-Ui )   …(2) 

Where;  

Y: is the observed output and Y* is the frontier output. 

The parameters of the stochastic frontier production function (equation 3) was accomplished by Maximum 

Likelihood Estimation (MLE) available in Frontier 4.1.  This technique was developed by Battese and Coelli [4] 

and has been used extensively by various authors in estimating technical efficiency among crop farmers. 

The specified swamp rice production function is given as follows; 

LnY = ß0 + ß1LnX1+ ß2LnX2 + ß3LnX3 + ß4LnX4 + ß5LnX5+ εi      ... (3) 

Where;  

Ln represents the natural logarithm 

Y = Output of Rice in kilograms (kg) 

X1 = Farm size (ha) 

X2 = Seed (kg) 

X3= Labour ( man-days) 

X4  =Ferilizer (kg) 

X5= Herbicide (litres) 

ß0 = Intercept 

εi= Random error 

ß0to ß5are coefficients to be estimated. 

 

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 

3.1. Socio-Economic Characteristics of Swamp Rice Farmers 

The results of the socio-economic characteristics of the swamp rice farmers in the study area are presented on 

table 1.  

 

Table-1. Socio-economic characteristics of the swamp rice farmers 

Descriptive statistics 

 N Minimum Maximum       Mean  Std. Deviation 

Age 60 21.00 70.00 47.6333 10.75295 
Education 60 .00 16.00 7.9333 5.48609 
Gender 60 .00 1.00 .7000 .46212 
Maritalst 60 .00 1.00 .8667 .34280 
Hhsize 60 1.00 16.00 7.3167 3.64757 

Farmingexp 60 2.00 50.00 21.9167 12.03567 
Farmsize 60 .50 4.00 1.8625 .83156 
Extensionvisit 60 .00 1.00 .8000 .40338 

  Source: Field Survey Data, 2015 

 

The results of the investigation on distribution of rice farmers according to age shows that the maximum age of 

the rice farmers was 70 years with a mean age of 48 years. This shows that the swamp rice farmers are still within 

their active age.  Results on education reveals that the mean number of years spent in school was 8 years. This 



Current Research in Agricultural Sciences, 2017, 4(1): 1-6 

  

 
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© 2017 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

implies that the rice farmers had basic education and can understand the need for resource efficiency in production. 

Itam, et al. [5] posit that an educated farmer has the capacity to understand and adopt improved 

technology that would shift his production frontier upwards. 

The result of the distribution of swamp rice farmers by gender showed that majority of the farmers were male, 

given  a mean of  0.70 representing 70% of the farmers. This is expected given the high labour requirement of rice 

farming and the low mechanization of farming in the study area. This is consistent with the findings of Nwalieji, et 

al. [6] that rice farming is a male dominated enterprise.  

The results on the marital status of the swamp rice farmers in the study area confirm that about 86.7 per cent 

of the farmers were married. This implies that the farming households were complex and rice farming provides 

income to meet the basic needs of the households.  

 The result of the analysis on household size showed the mean household size to be 7 persons. Higher number 

of members of the household contributes to family labour. The burden of hiring labour for all activities in rice 

production, from land preparation to harvesting contributes significantly to labour cost. 

The distribution of rice farmers based on farming experience show that rice farming has been a long time 

practice amongst the farmers in the study area with a mean of 22 years. Farmers with more experience are more 

likely to accept innovations than inexperienced farmers, and this would enhance their technical efficiency of 

resource use.  

The investigation on farm size revealed that the mean farm size was 1.86 hectares. This is consistent with 

Nwaobiala and Adesope [7]. The sizes of the farm holdings confirm that these rice farmers are smallholders and 

there is need for them to efficient use the productive resources available to them for increased productivity. The 

results on extension visit y extension agents to the swamp rice farmers in the study area showed that up to 80% had 

extension contact during the planting season. However, there is need for the government and the Agricultural 

Development programme (ADP) to facilitate timely extension contacts between farmers and extension agents. The 

provision of information and guidance to farmers in any production season would increase their technical efficiency 

of resource use.  

 

3.2. Maximum Likelihood Estimates of the Stochastic Production Frontier Function for Swamp Rice 

Farmers  

The Maximum likelihood estimates of the stochastic production frontier function for swamp rice farmers in the 

study area is presented in table 2.  

 

Table-2. Maximum likelihood estimates of the stochastic production frontier function for swamp rice farmers 

Variables Coefficient   standard-error    t-ratio 

Intercept  0.80927823  0.33438997 2.4201629** 

Farm size      0.39187047 0.17841825 2.1963586** 
Seed    0.36392189 0.18391427   1.9787583* 
Labour -0.091620249 0.041882314 -2.1875642* 
Fertilizer    0.028843663 0.029828452 0.96698491 
Agro-chemical 0.0050747247   0.042540827   0.11929069 

Diagnostic statistics    
sigma-squared 0.18939165   0.056787887 3.3350712 
gamma 0.76232491 0.15256058 4.9968668** 
log likelihood function =  -14.434292 
  LR test = 2.8458365   

   Source: Field Survey Data, 2015 

 

The result of the technical efficiency of swamp rice farmer’s showed that only three of the variables, farm size, 

seed and labour are significant.  Farm size was found to be significant indicating low use of yield enhancing 



Current Research in Agricultural Sciences, 2017, 4(1): 1-6 

  

 
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© 2017 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

technology, mechanization and inputs in rice cultivation in Nigeria. Expansion of rice output in Nigeria has been 

attributed to area expansion.  

The coefficient of seed was significant indicating that the quality of seed planted was more important than the 

absolute quantity. The use of improved quality seeds by swamp rice farmers is expected to increase their output.  

Labour was significant and negatively signed. The corresponding elasticity did not suggest that increased used of 

this input will yield more than proportionate increase in output. 

Fertilizer and agro-chemicals were not statistically significant. However, the low use of critical inputs such as 

fertilizer and agro-chemicals may have seriously undermined the yield of the swamp rice farmers.  

 

3.3. Distribution of Technical Efficiency among the Swamp Rice Farmers 

The distribution of technical efficiency among the swamp rice farmers is presented on table 3. 

 

Table-3. Distribution of technical efficiency among the swamp rice farmers 

Range of technical Efficiency Frequency Percentage   
<50 3 5.00 
50-60 3 5.00 
61-70 7 11.66 
71-80 22 36.67 
81-90 22 36.67 
91-100 3 5.00 

Total 60 100 
Mean efficiency =   0.75938806 

   Source: Field survey data, 2015.  

 

The result of the technical efficiency estimates of the cassava farmers shows that efficiencies range from less 

than 50% to 99% with a mean technical efficiency of about 75.9% ( Table 3). This is lower than 90% and 91% 

obtained by Ogundele and Okoruwa [8] for farmers using traditional and improved variety of rice in his study. The 

efficiency distribution indicates that (36.7%) of the farmers were in the modal class of above 80%, and another 36.7% 

where in the modal class of above 70%  of  technical efficiency. The relatively high levels of efficiency of 75.9% 

suggesting that only a small fraction of 24.1% of the output is lost due to technical inefficiency in swamp rice 

production. 

 

4. CONCLUSION 

The study showed that swamp rice farmers in the study area are not fully technically efficient in their resource 

use. This is due to their technical inefficiency. Therefore, there is need to improve the levels of technical efficiency of 

the farmers given their current resource base and technology. Government should strengthen its policy on the 

provision of incentives such as access to affordable inputs including land and improved seed.  

 

Funding: This study received no specific financial support. 
 

Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests. 
 

Contributors/Acknowledgement: All authors contributed equally to the conception and design of the study.  

 

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