Net income analysis and efficiency of resource use among cotton farmers in the Southern part of Adamawa State, Nigeria

The study examined the Net Income and efficiency of resource use among cotton farmers in the southern part of Adamawa State where cotton is predominantly grown.One hundred and twenty farmers were sampled using multiple stages, purposive and simple random sampling techniques. Analysis of the sampled farmers showed that 86 % of them were youth which suggest that if proper attention is given to cotton cultivation, a lot of youth would be gainfully employed. The results also revealed that 40 % of the farmers did not attend any formal school while 14 % attended tertiary level of education. All the respondents reported having contact with extension workers, which were mostly from the Non Governmental Organisations. About 59 % of the respondents reported Afcott Nigeria PLC as the source of their extension services. The average cost and returns per hectare of the cotton farmers was N46, 046.25 and N56, 224.90 respectively. This showed a profit of N10, 175.15 per hectare. The R2 of 0.86 of the regression model shows that 86 % of the farmers ’ income is being explained by the exogenous variables. Land, labour and seed have positive influence on farmers ’ income and the first two significant at 1 % and 10 % levels respectively. Fertiliser, chemical and transportation had negative influence on farmers ’ income probably due to their escalating prices. The marginal physical product analysis revealed that an extra hectare of land acquired for cotton will result to an increase of over one tonne of cotton ceteris paribus. None of the resources used by the farmers was however efficiently, utilized