ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF SMALL SCALE IRRIGATED TOMATO PRODUCTION IN JOS NORTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA

The study analysed the Economics of small scale irrigated tomato production in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State. A multi stage sampling techniques was used to select 100 irrigated tomato farmers. Data were collected using structured questionnaires and the data were analysed using descriptive statistics, stochastic frontier model and farm budgeting. The result of the socio economic characteristics of the farmers revealed that the mean age of the farmers was 41years this implies that majority of the farmers were in their productive and economic age. The result further showed that production in the study area was dominated by men with 74%. The mean farming experience of the farmers was 24 years and a mean area of land cultivated as 1.6 hectares. Majority (58%) of the farmers were educated with secondary qualification. The result of stochastic frontier model shows that farm size, fertilizer, pesticides and labour were statistically significant implying that increase in these variables means increase in tomato output while the inefficiency model revealed that farming experience, farm size and extension contact were negatively related with technical inefficiency , farm budgeting analysis revealed that the average total cost of irrigated tomato production per hectare was N345,205.40k while the average total revenue was N1,313,000, the total net farm income was N 966,794.60 statistically. This shows that irrigated tomato production in the study area was profitable. The major challenges confronting irrigated tomato production in the study area includes; high cost of fertilizer and high cost of irrigation facilities. It is recommended that government should subsidized the cost of fertilizer in order to reduce farmers cost of production and farmers should form cooperative for easy accessibility of agricultural loan.