Effect of Land Tenure System and Fragmentation on Technical Efficiency of Rice Farmers in the Dadin-Kowa Irrigation Scheme, North-East, Nigeria

This study was undertaken to analyze the effect of land tenure system practices and farm fragmentation on technical efficiency of rice farmers under the Dadin-Kowa Irrigation Scheme (DKIS) and made use of cross-sectional data from a survey conducted on 284 rice farmers selected by multi-staged sampling in Gombe and Borno states, Nigeria. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the stochastic frontier model. The study concludes that; the land tenure system practices and land fragmentation affects the technical efficiency of DKIS rice farmers. Inheritance system of land tenure, land fragmentation and cost of land were found to increase farmers’ technical inefficiency and recommends that government, policy makers and traditional heads should come up with land use policies which would enable holistic allocation of farm lands and determining minimum economic farm size for higher productivity and also come up with extreme measures such as laws that would prohibit and prosecute land owners from leasing and selling of agricultural land at exorbitant prices