N. VINCENT, B. K. LANGAT and E. K. NGENO
Moi University, Department of Economics and Agricultural Resource Management, P. O. Box 1125-30100, Eldoret, Kenya
VINCENT, N., B. K. LANGAT and E. K. NGENO, 2010. Resource use efficiency in smallholder bulrush millet production in Narok district, Kenya. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 16: 622-627
The main objective of the study was to establish the efficiency of resource use in bulrush millet production among smallholder farmers in Narok district, Kenya. A multi-stage stratified random sampling procedure was employed in selecting farmers interviewed. A structured questionnaire was administered to 300 smallholder farmers selected. For analysis, the farmers were sub-divided into two groups based on ownership and use of draft animals (oxen) on farm. The Yotopoulus and Lau non-frontier model was used to evaluate efficiency of the two groups of bulrush millet farmers. In the model, a Cobb-Douglas production function was fitted to the cross-sectional data generated from the survey. The ratio of marginal value product (MVP) to marginal factor cost (MFC) for all inputs was found to be greater than unity among all groups of farmers implying under-utilization of resources. Bulrush millet farmers were found to experience increasing returns to scale meaning use of additional inputs in bulrush millet production would result in higher yields. The null hypothesis, which stated that smallholder farmers in Narok district are not allocating their farm resources efficiently in millet production, was tested and rejected at 5% level of significance. It was therefore concluded that bulrush millet farmers in Narok district were sub-optimally allocating resources in their production system.