AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE DETERMINANTS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY AND ITS EFFECT ON AGRICULTURAL OUTPUT: A STUDY OF SOKOTO, KEBBI AND ZAMFARA STATES

: The paper examined the effect of agricultural productivity in the direction of farmers’ experience, access to extension agent, access to credit and farmers; gender on agricultural output of farmers in Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states. The objective of this study is to ascertain the relationship between farmers’ experience, access to extension agent, access to credit and farmers’ gender and agricultural output in the region. For the purpose of this study, primary data was adopted through questionnaire. The population of the study consists of one thousand (1000) respondents across Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states. The data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics such as tables and percentages were used to present and analyze the data. On the other hand, inferential statistics was used in testing hypothesis using multiple regression model. The result shows that agricultural productivity in the direction of farmers’ experience, access to extension agent and access to credit influences agricultural output in the area. The study shows that the entire people of the area leave by farming and agric-trading, the revenue contribution from agric-trading is vital to the states development and Federal government of Nigeria. The declining of farm product commercial activities in the states brings about social depravities like unemployment, poverty, armed bandits, kidnappings, loss of revenue. (Dunmoye, 2016). Government Areas (LGAs) purposively and a multistage random sampling technique was used to collect data from 240 food farmers. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to analyse data and a Stochastic Production Frontier Approach was used to estimate farmer’s technical efficiency and its socio-economic determinants. The results revealed that the majority of farmers travelled an average of 6 km between the farm location and the village and resided mostly in the village. Food producers were full-time farmers practicing mostly crop diversification and exploiting an average of 14.61 acres of land. The technical efficiency scores recorded varied between 0.2 and 0.94 with a mean of 0.73. There is a significant effect of the farm distance, farmers’ place of residence, farmer’s gender, experience, extension contact, access to credit, and rate of lands to tubers and fertilizer use on food farmers’ technical efficiency. Meanwhile, the level of involvement into farming (full-time or part-time), the diversification index, and farm size had no significant effect on farmer’s productivity. Therefore, the study recommended that no negative impact of farm distance on food farmer’s productivity while highlighting the strategic importance of credit and extension services towards female food farmers. Daniel and Ihechituru (2011). Examined determinants of agricultural production and agricultural sector output in Nigeria. The findings from the analysis show that agricultural mechanization, funding, agricultural credit/loan as well as exchange rate have positive relationship with agricultural production output.