ISSN 2360-798X
Abstract
Accepted 4th April, 2016
The two general properties to the farm and technological improvement are greater output from a given input and increase in profitability. Thus, it can be said that it is possible for an innovation to be factor saving, factor using, or output-increasing. This paper employed budgetary technique and chow test to examine the impact of improved technology adoption on output and profitability to rural farmers in Osun State. A total sample size of 227 (115 adopters and 112 non adopters of Improved maize varieties) randomly drawn from 36 villages across the 3 Agro-ecological zones (AEZs) was used for the study. The result of descriptive statistics shows that the respondents sampled were in their productive age with the mean age of 51.04, 58.45 and 54.75 for adopters, non-adopters and pooled respectively. Majority (80.1%) of the respondents was found to be married which represented 80.6% and 79.6% of adopters and non-adopters respectively. Gross margin analysis results revealed that the average yield per hectare for adopters and non adopters were 2.05tons and 1.18tons respectively, the total revenue realized by adopters of IMV was N133,795.35 while that of non adopters was N67,598.31/ha. The total variable cost (TVC) incurred by adopters of IMV were N46950.52/ha and N38085.10/ha while the gross return were N86,844.83/ha and N29,513.70/ha respectively. The Chow Test showed that there was a significant difference in the incomes realized by farmers who adopted improved maize varieties and those who did not.
Keywords: Improved technology, profitability, Descriptive statistics, Budgetary technique, Chow test.