PROFITABILITY OF YAM PRODUCTION IN PAIKORO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF NIGER STATE, NIGERIA

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INTRODUCTION
Yams (Dioscorea species) is an annual root tuber plant bearing above 600 species of which about six are economically and socially accepted in terms of food, cash and as well as medicine (International Institute for Tropical Agriculture [IITA], 2009).Agriculture is a major resource in which activities in terms of labour and capital utilization has the potential of increasing Nigeria's food self-sufficiency (Bamire and Amujoyegbe, 2010). Yams are majorly grown and produced in tropical and savannah regions of West Africa, where rainfalls are distributed into wet and dry seasons (Verter and Bečvářová, 2015). Nigeria stand as the number one largest producer of yams in the world, with Ghana second, Côte D'Ivoire, Benin, Togo, and Cameroon 3rdand 5th respectively (Food and Agriculture Organization [ FAO], 2013).Sources available shows that food sufficiency ratio of Nigeria was sometime less than one from the year 1997 to 2010. The actual yield of some major food tubers are lower than their potential yields (Rahji, 2012). Yam is therefore one of the primary root tubers in terms of under land cultivation, while in volume and value of production in Nigeria. It is one of the food rich in carbohydrate and nutritionally superior to most root tubers in terms of proteins and minerals like Calcium, Magnesium and Potassium. (Ebewore et al., 2013). Tuber crops, like yam have high relative value per unit of land used in its cultivation in comparison to some crops above all, cereals (Mbah, 2010).Yam as tuber crop possess some unique characteristics. First, it has high content of carbohydrates especially starch and could have multiplicity of use. Secondly, it could be resistant to drought, pest and disease and likely adjust to different climatic conditions (Ugwumba and Omojola, 2012).
Yam comprises of about 32% of farmers gross income for tuber crop farmers in the middle belt and eastern part of Nigeria, in terms of share value yam farm gate sales 31% which is second to only cassava with (37%) out of the nine major food tuber crops compared in Nigeria in 2004 (Sanusi and Salmonu, 2010). Over the years, the farm hectare of yam production has increased with equivalent increases in the usage of inputs. Unfortunately, the increment is not commensurable with usage of the input (Jonathan and Anthony, 2012). Nonetheless, Nigerian Government has initiated effort to encourage large investment in the agricultural sector including product such as yam for the purpose of export. It is in line with this that government initiated the Root and Tuber Expansion Program (RTEP) to improve farmers' productivity and profits from root and tuber crops. In 2003, an export subsidy of 10% on agricultural commodities was introduced and remains in place till date (Akande and Ogundele, 2009). Despite the government initiatives, Bamire and Amijoyegbe, 2010 noted that, there have been increasing gap in the level of supply and demand for yam in the South Western Nigeria. The absolute reduction of yam production remained static over the decade as noted by (Oladeebo and Okanlawon, 2010). Though the static trend could not be unconnected with production resources which are not efficiently utilized. It is against these backdrops that this paper tends to access the profitability of yam production in order to meet the level of demand, there is need to assess the level of technical efficiency and its determinants in yam production. Previous studies carried out on food crop production in Nigeria have shown that food crop farmers have low productivity because of inefficiency in resource use (Idiong et al., 2010).

MATERIALS AND METHODS The Study Area
The research was carried out in Paikoro Local Government Area of NigerState, Nigeria. The area is situated at Latitudes 926'N to 6:38'E North and Longitudes 6.9East to 7.0 East. The headquarter of the research location is Paiko about 25km North to the State Capital Minna, Niger State. The State is covered with an area of land which is approximately 20,066 Square Kilometers.85% of the land is arable. The area experiences dry and wet seasons with an annual rainfall of 1,100mm in the northern parts to, 600mm in the southern parts, in which the maximum temperature is 34℃is recorded between March and June. The rainy season lasts for about 150 days in the northern parts to about 120 days in the southern parts of the Local Government (National Bureau of Statistics [NBS], 2012).

Sampling Techniques
A multi-stage sampling technique was used for the study. The first stage was purposive selection of Paikoro Local Government Area (LGA) due to its prevalence production of yam. The second stage, include the selection of three (3) villages from the chosen LGA. While the third stage involved a random selection of 30 yam farmers from each of the chosen villages to give a total sum of 90 sampled farmers for the study.

Methods of Data Collection
Data for this study was mainly primary which was obtained through the use of a structured questionnaire administered to the yam farmers in the study area. The data for this study was collected from primary source only. Among the information acquired from the respondents of yam farmers include: age, sex, number of years in farming, educational level, household size, farm size, number of extension visit, membership of associations, land renting, amount of credit received and interest charged, inputs availability and prices, source and quantity of labour and others.

Analytical Techniques
Net farm income analysis was used to achieve cost and return of yam production while descriptive statistics was used to describe the socio economics characteristics of the farmers in the study area. The net farm income model is specified as: NFI = TR -TC where; NFI= Net farm income TR = Total revenue TC = Total cost of production TC = TVC+TFC Table 1 reveals that about 50% of the respondents in the study area were within the ages of 46 -55 years with a mean age of 47 years. This means that they are still in their active productive ages; an economic active age that can make positive contribution to agricultural production. Table 1 further reveals that 14.4% of the respondents had no formal education, 55% had only primary education, and 18.8% had secondary education while 5.6% had tertiary education. However, 85% of the respondents had acquired one form of formal education or another. Notably, formal education is an essential tool for the adoption of modern production technologies and effective communication system that encourages increase in the productivity of any agricultural venture (Ugwumba and Omojola, 2012). About 52% of the respondents had 21-30 years of farming experience with a mean of 23 years. It is of the general opinion that experience farmers would be more efficient, have a better knowledge of climatic conditions and are thus expected to run a more efficient enterprise.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Socio Economic Characteristics of the Farmers in the Study Area
Table 1 also reveals that 46.7% of the respondents did not belong to cooperative association. However, a greater percentage of the respondents (53.3%) are members of cooperative association. The average year of membership is 21 years. The effect of this result was that most of the respondents in the study area enjoy benefits such as having access to credit, market outlets, marketing information and information on new technologies etc. This finding is in line with Musa et al. (2012) that cooperative groups ensure that their members derive benefits from the groups which they could have not derived individually.
The results also disclosed that majority (47.7%) of the respondents had family size ranging from 8-10. The average household size is 8. The implication of this is that most respondents have large families. We assume that a relatively large household size are more likely to provide more labour required for farm operations such as weed control, fertilizer application. Table 1 reveals that most of the respondents (56.6%) cultivated less than a hectare of land, while 22.2% cultivated between the ranges of 1-3 hectares. Only 15.6% of the respondents cultivated more than 3 hectares. This shows that farm sizes are relatively small and the implication is to a large extent, farm size determines output level. The finding is in line with (Kolawole and Ojo, 2007) who noted that Nigerian agriculture involves small scale farmers scattered over wide expense of land areas with small holders ranging from 0.5-3.0 hectares.

Journal of Agripreneurship and Sustainable Development (JASD)
Volume 4

Costs and Return Analysis of Yam Production
The items of cost were classified into fixed and variables cost items. The fixed cost items includes: cost of hoes, machetes, spades, head pans, interest on loan and rent on land. While the variable cost items comprised of cost of yam setts, labour, fertilizer and agrochemical. The fixed costs items were depreciated over time while the variable cost items were determined by each producer based on the quantity used for yam production at a particular price. The profitability of yam production enterprise was examined using the estimated costs and return analysis presented in Table 2.
The results in Table 2 indicated that a gross margin realized by a typical small-scale yam farmer was ₦410,269.17 per hectare. This was obtained by subtracting the total variable cost (₦172,319.55) from the total revenue (₦582,588.72). The total variable cost (₦172,319.55) per hectare in yam production was obtained by multiplying the total units of yam sett (2,150kg), labour (105.45man-days), fertilizer (187.5kg) and agrochemical (4.32litre) by the unit cost prices: (₦45), (₦451), (₦132) and (₦755), respectively. It was discovered from the study area that yam sett comprised of 44.3%, labour 21.8%, fertilizer 11.3% and agrochemical 1.5% of the total cost in yam production. The total revenue (₦582,588.72) was obtained by multiplying the total units of yam output (3664.08kg) per hectare by the unit selling price (₦159). The total fixed cost of yam production per hectare was ₦45,878.43. This was obtained by depreciating the fixed cost items using the straight line depreciation formula. It was discovered that the total fixed cost comprised of 0.2% of hoe, 0.3% of machete, 0.4% of spade, 0.1% of head pan, 9.4% of land renting and 10.7% of interest on loan of the total cost. In all, fixed cost accounted for only 21.1% of the total cost in yam production. This implies that variable costs (78.9%) where the most important cost items in yam production in the study area compares to the fixed cost items. Table 2 further revealed that total cost of production was ₦218,197.98. This was obtained by adding the total fixed cost to total variable cost. The net farm income was ₦364,390.74. This was obtained by subtracting the total cost from the total revenue. The return per naira invested was ₦1.67. This was obtained by dividing the net farm income by the total cost. The result implies that yam production is a profitable enterprise in the study area. The economic implication of these findings is that credits granted to farmers for yam production were of benefit to both lenders and borrowers since returns were high enough to repay such credits and accrued interest.

Constraints Faced by the Yam Farmers
The results of Table 3 shows that the respondents considered inadequate access to credit (35.6%) a major constraint and it ranked first among the identified constraints. This is so because credit is important to enhance access to inputs and marketing costs like storage and transportation. Transportation (23.3%) was considered the next problem because yam is heavy and fragile, so transporting it can be difficult and costly. Pest and disease (17.8%) ranked third because they are constraints to the yam farmers both on the field and when in storage. The next is storage (12.2%) a problem because the bulky and perishability of yam requires special space for storage and this is not always available to farmers. The result is that most farmers sell their produce at low prices shortly after harvest. The respondents also considered high cost of labour (11.1%) ranked least because family labour is used to compliment high cost of labour.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The study focused on the profitability of yam production among small-holder farmers in selected communities of Paikoro LGA of Niger State. The average costs incurred and revenue obtained per hectare for yam farmers were estimated to determine the profitability or otherwise of yam production in the study area (Table 7). The total revenue (TR) is ₦582,588.72 while the total cost (TVC + TFC) is ₦218197.98. The net farm income is therefore ₦364,390.74. The average rate of return on investment (return per naira invested) is ₦1.67, indicating that for every ₦1 invested in yam production in study areas, a profit of ₦1.67 kobo was made. Thus, it could be concluded that yam production in the study areas was economically viable. Finally, among the constraints identified in the study areas, majority of the respondents attested to the fact that inadequate access to credit and poor transportation network were major constraints faced. The study recommended, infrastructure facilities like good road network should be provided for the yam farmers in the study area. The concept of cooperative movement should be encouraged in the study area so as to solve the problem of credit facilities to the farmers. It is also recommended that effort should be made to intensify the number of extension visits as this signifies a strong factor in yam production in the study area.