ABSTRACT
Viable seed is a requirement for a stable agricultural system and for establishing food security to farmers and the nation at large. This study focused on economic evaluation of certified rice seed production among out-growers in Katsina state, Nigeria. A two-stage sampling technique was used to purposively select four out of the five registered seed companies in Katsina State based on their involvement with rice outgrowers. This was followed by a random selection of 127 respondents from the list of rice out-growers used by the selected companies. Primary data were collected with the aid of structured questionnaire administered to the farmers. The tools used to analyze the data collected were descriptive statistics, net farm income, stochastic production and costs frontier functions. The results of the analysis revealed that the mean age of the respondents is 40 years and that of the household size is 10. About 65% of the farmers were literate with an average of 5 years of schooling. The mean years of experience in rice seed production was found to be 5 years and the mean years spent on cooperative society is 2 years, average number of extension contact with extension agents is 3 visits per year. The average amount of credit obtained is ₦154000. The total revenue realized from sale of certified rice seed was ₦69,767.129/ha while the total cost was ₦32,160.68/ha. The net farm income was estimated at ₦37,606.449/ha and the returns per Naira invested was 1.17. The results of stochastic frontier analysis revealed the mean technical, allocative and economic efficiency of 0.66, 0.55 and 0.37 respectively. The study thus suggest that for the average farmer in the study area to achieve economic efficiency of his most efficient counterpart, he could realize about 76.83 % cost savings while on the other hand, the least economic efficient farmers will have about 112% cost savings to become the most efficient farmer. The variables that significantly influenced economic efficiency were education, experience in rice seed production and amount of credit obtained at 1%, 1% and 5% levels of probability respectively. Though, the rice seed outgrowers in the study area were economically inefficient, the study revealed that the enterprise is profitable returning ₦1.17 to every ₦1.00 spent. It is therefore recommended that farmers should be encouraged to join cooperative societies, so as to access inputs, especially, credit at low cost and also enhance market outlet. The ADPs and/or seed companies should intensify extension services to educate and encourage farmers to adopt modern cultural practices in order to promote efficient utilization of existing knowledge and skills to increase their economic efficiency.
