Labour is generally in short supply in peasant production particularly in the rural areas in Nigeria. There is also an unpredictable pattern of use of labour in cocoa farms. This has a negative implication on the leve...Labour is generally in short supply in peasant production particularly in the rural areas in Nigeria. There is also an unpredictable pattern of use of labour in cocoa farms. This has a negative implication on the level and quality of farm output among small holder farmers. The study investigated the effects of labour use patterns on productivity of cocoa farms in south western Nigeria. Multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select the respondents and the data were analyzed with the use of descriptive statistics and stochastic efficiency frontier function. Many farms （80%） were less than 5 hectares in size and sharecropping was the most dominant of the labour types on the farms. Adult male labour constituted about 69% of the total labour- use on the plantations and the majority of the labour was involved in the application of agrochemicals and harvesting of cocoa pods. The quantity of harvested cocoa beans, size of cleared understoreys and quantity of applied agrochemicals significantly affected （at 5% level） the labour-use efficiency in cocoa plantations. Poor remunerations often discourage prospective farm labour from participating in cocoa production. Better farm labour supply level could be achieved if the remuneration for farm labour is handsomely increased.展开更多
文摘Labour is generally in short supply in peasant production particularly in the rural areas in Nigeria. There is also an unpredictable pattern of use of labour in cocoa farms. This has a negative implication on the level and quality of farm output among small holder farmers. The study investigated the effects of labour use patterns on productivity of cocoa farms in south western Nigeria. Multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select the respondents and the data were analyzed with the use of descriptive statistics and stochastic efficiency frontier function. Many farms （80%） were less than 5 hectares in size and sharecropping was the most dominant of the labour types on the farms. Adult male labour constituted about 69% of the total labour- use on the plantations and the majority of the labour was involved in the application of agrochemicals and harvesting of cocoa pods. The quantity of harvested cocoa beans, size of cleared understoreys and quantity of applied agrochemicals significantly affected （at 5% level） the labour-use efficiency in cocoa plantations. Poor remunerations often discourage prospective farm labour from participating in cocoa production. Better farm labour supply level could be achieved if the remuneration for farm labour is handsomely increased.
