Cabbage is one of the most cultivated vegetable crops that are used as a staple crop because of its affordability and nutritional value. Improving profit efficiency in vegetable farming is important for both economic, livelihood, and to certain extent - food security. The crop plays a significant role in reducing the poverty levels of the previously disadvantaged in different parts of South Africa. We argue that cabbage is mostly grown by smallholder farmers whose technical efficiency is not well known. It is for this reason that we take measures towards developing empirical evidence on technical efficiency to enhance its production and advancement. The study estimated technical efficiency and factors of technical inefficiency among smallholder irrigation producers of cabbage. A total of 150 growers were selected from a list of vegetable farmers from Eastern Cape Municipalities using a multi-stage sampling. A stochastic production frontier model was employed while correcting for heteroscedasticity in stochastic and inefficiency error terms. Gross margin was used to determine the profitability of smallholder cabbage farming. The study findings revealed that farming is practiced by the elderly who mainly had primary education. There were increasing returns from cabbage farming and farmer average technical efficiency of about 78%. This implies 21.16% inefficiency level, indicating that there are reserves available to raise revenues through refining practical and allocative competencies of farmers. Farm size (Area), seed and capital were production-increasing variables while fertilizer and labour used were reducing farm returns of cabbage production. Sources of farmer technical inefficiency were age, farm experience, years spent in school, access to extension services, household size and transportation to markets. The provision of formal skills development training and resources for farmers could improve the technical and managerial capacities of farmers.
Aim: Employ the use of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) to analyze areas of groundwater potentials in Keffi LGA to meet the rate of water demand. Study Design: The study is designed to delineate and analyze the drainage characteristics, and map out the groundwater potential zones. Place and Duration of Study: The study is conducted in Keffi LGA of Nassarawa State, Nigeria in 2018. Methodology: Both spatial and non-spatial data were utilized for this research, including Ground Control Points, satellite imageries, and maps. The data generated consisting of the rainfall, NDVI, lineament, geology, slope, and relief were prepared into thematic layers and used for the generation of the drainage morphometric parameters and multi-criteria overlay analysis. Each of the layer used has inputs were ranked based on their relative importance in controlling groundwater potential, and divided into classes using the hydro-geological properties. The groundwater potential analysis reveals four distinct zones representing high, moderate, less and least groundwater potential zones. The delineated groundwater potential map was verified using the available Ground Control Point of boreholes across the study area. Results: The drainage of the study area falls in the 4th order, with the drainage density ranging from 0.2 to 1.6. From the groundwater potential map generated using the rainfall, lineament, geology, drainage density, slope, soil, and NDVI attributes, areas categorized having the moderate groundwater potentials cover about 89.1 km2, while the least cover 0.1 km2 of the study area. Validating the result with borehole locations across the location shows that the boreholes are dug based on the availability of water following the groundwater potentials, and; 59.8% of the settlement area falls within the moderate groundwater potential classes. Conclusion: The area has adequate capacity for water supply, and only those within the high groundwater potential classes can access groundwater throughout the year.
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