Content Vol. 2 N 12, 2016
Pages 493 - 524
Estimation of the relationship between input and output in maize production in lafia local government area of Nasarawa state, Nigeria; Onuk, E.G, Girei, A. A, Biam, C.K; Inter. J. Acad. Stud.; 2(12):493-506
Abstract:
This study estimated the relationship between input and output in maize production in Lafia Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, Nigeria. The study made use of primary data which were collected with the aid of interview guide. A purposive and multi-stage random sampling technique was employed in the selection of a sample of 70 respondents from seven villages in the study area on who structured questionnaire were administered. Descriptive and statistics and production function analysis were used in achieving the objectives of the study. The result of the study shows that most of the maize farmers fall within the ages of 21and 50 signifying that the farmers are in their productive age. Majority, representing 77.1% of the farmers are male with all the respondents having a family size of above 5 inhabitants indicating possibility of available family labour. The result also revealed that 88.4% of the farmers were married and 93% of the respondents had no formal education. In addition, all the farmers had over 10 years’ experience in maize farming. The average seed rate used by farmers as estimated was 65.64kg and that of fertilizer was 11.43kg. The regression coefficient for seed (X2) and fertilizer (X5) were positive and significant at 5% and 1% level of probability respectively and the coefficient of multiple determinations (R2) was estimated at 0.87 implying that about 87% of the variation in the output of maize could be explained by the inputs used in the production process and it is significant at 1% level. It is recommended that critical inputs; such as land, labour, seed and fertilizer, access to capital and effective extension delivery have to be timely provided and efficiently utilized.
Key words:
Estimation, Relationship, Input and Output, Maize, Production.
Abstract:
The journey of Nigeria’s development planning began in the 1940s. From 1945 up to the first decade of independence, several kinds of economic plans were experimented but there were two major development plans that markedly bracketed the country’s economic landscape within the period: first was the ‘Ten Year Plan of Development and Welfare for Nigerians 1946-1955’ and the other was the ‘First National Development Plan 1962-1968’, later extended to 1970. These plans, though, largely framed and supervised on colonial character, to a certain degree, stimulated economic growth and marginally improved the material condition of the people. However, a close study shows that none of these plans up to 1968 was able to factor ‘indigenisation of economy’ as a critical precondition for Nigeria’s development until the Second and Third National Development Plans were designed. Therefore, the paper examines how ‘economic indigenisation’ was pursued, and the extent of its outcome, in the light of development and decolonization in Nigeria’s Second and Third National Development Plans. The discourse is underpinned with ‘dependency theory’ as the most relevant framework of analysis. It adopts the qualitative method of research where facts are analyzed in relation to events that informed them, and relied mainly on published literature and official reports as sources of information. The paper, in its findings, argues that indigenisation as ‘a national development goal’ was very visible in the two development plans, and to some extent impactful, but, nevertheless, suffered external and internal ‘contradictions’ in its practical pursuit which the then Nigerian government could not foresee, or perhaps, shy away from. In as much as we lament over this situation, there is optimism that with the ‘right economic indigenisation’ Nigeria’s development as well as her complete decolonisation is guaranteed.
Key words:
Development, Growth, Planning, Indigenisation, Dependency, Decolonisation.