Resource use Efficiency of Irrigated Tomato Production in Northern Part of Taraba State, Nigeria

The study examine resource use efficiency of irrigated tomato production in Northern Taraba State, were irrigated tomato production is predominantly grown. One hundred and four farmers were selected using a multi stage, purposive and simple random sampling techniques. The result of the analysis revealed that 96% of the variation in irrigated tomato output was due to difference in technical efficiency. The mean technical efficiency (TE) is 0.89 (89%) which indicated that tomato farmers in the study area are not fully efficient because they operated below the frontier level. The result of the analysis further showed that farm size, fertilizer and insecticides were the major factors that influenced output of the crop and are all statistically significant at 1% level. The results indicated that the farm size was under-utilized since the ratio exceeded unity while Fertilizer and insecticide were over utilized because the estimated efficiency ratios differed from unity. Base on the finding the researchers wish to recommend that access to credit by farmers should be guaranteed by the State Government through special programs to enable farmers acquire more productive modern inputs as well as other cost – elements in the production process.