ABSTRACT

The broad objective of the study was to examine the economics of size in irrigated tomato production under Kano river irrigation project (KRIP) phase I, Kano state, Nigeria. Primary data were collected from 213 irrigated tomato farmers, using multi-stage sampling techniques in three local government areas covered by KRIP. Data were collected during the 2014/2015 irrigation farming season using well-structured questionnaire. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics, budgeting techniques, two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) and regression models. The result indicates that majority (53%) of the irrigated tomato farmers were in their active years and approximately 57% had some form of formal education. Majority of the farmers( 93%) had been in tomato production for 8 to 31 years and 71% of the farmers had less than 1.0 hectare of farmland. Majority of farmers (78%) had no contact with extension workers while 76% used personal savings for production. It was found that only seed was over-utilised by medium and large scale farmers with average usage of seed above recommended rate resulting to output far below the potential yield of 40tonnes/ha. Irrigated tomato production was found to be profitable with an estimated total cost of ₦89,935.60/ha, ₦115,171.80/ha and ₦135,575.80/ha for small, medium and large farms respectively, and a gross margin of ₦135,040.90, ₦169,257.00 and ₦207,027.40 for small, medium and large farms respectively. The irrigated tomato production was profitable among the three sizes of production but more profitable in the large farms with the highest returns of 85 kobo for every ₦1 invested. The study found that most of the farms irrespective of size of holding have some technical inefficiency problems. The medium farmers, in terms of Constant Returns to Scale (CRS) and Variable Returns to Scale (VRS), had the best measures of technical efficiency 13.6% and 72.7% compared to 16.5% and 21.2% for small farms and 27.3% and 45.5% for large farms. Though large farms have been found efficient, with hig