ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF SMALL-SCALE TOMATO PRODUCTION IN JERE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF BORNO STATE, NIGERIA

This study focused on the economic analysis of tomato production in Jere Local Government Area of Borno State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to: describe the -socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, estimate the resource use efficiency in tomato production as well as describe the constraints associated with tomato production. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 100 tomato farmers in the study area. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression. The result revealed that 68% were male with a mean age of 38, 40% had attained primary school with a mean household size of 9. 74% of the respondents were married, and 70% had access to credit. The respondents had mean farm size and farming experience of 2.5 and 12 respectively. The R2 was 79.8% and the F-ratio of 31.5 and statistically significant at 1%. The results revealed that fertilizer was statistically significant at 1% while farm size, labour, chemical and seed were positive and statistically significant at 5% respectively.  The result also revealed that labour, fertilizer, chemical and seed were under-utilized. Major constraints faced by tomato farmers in the study area are inadequate fertilizer which was 96%, high cost of labour (94%) and lack of credit facilities (92%).  The study concludes that production inputs such as seed, fertilizer, labour, and chemicals contributed to tomato output. Seed, fertilizer, chemicals and labour were under-utilized by the farmers. It is recommended that government should support tomato farmers by providing subsidized production inputs and credit.  Keywords: analysis, economic, production, small-scale, tomato