article · Research in Agricultural Sciences
An investigation of small-scale maize farmers in Kwara State, Nigeria, highlights the relationship between crop varieties, farming efficiency, and household food security. The analysis shows that smallholder maize farms operate at a high mean technical efficiency of 89.57 percent. Over half of the surveyed farmers cultivate local late-maturing varieties, while the remainder grow medium-early or early-maturing hybrid crops. Overall, just over half of the farming households achieve food security. However, adoption of improved varieties demonstrates a substantial advantage: nearly ninety-three percent of farmers growing improved maize varieties are food-secure, compared to roughly thirty-four percent of those relying on local seeds. Planting early-maturing maize and establishing maize as a primary crop significantly improve household food security status. Recommendations focus on subsidising improved seed varieties and expanding agricultural extension visits to raise farmer awareness of early-maturing crops.
Widespread food insecurity remains a critical challenge for smallholder farming communities across Africa. This research demonstrates that adopting early-maturing and improved hybrid maize varieties drastically improves household food security compared to traditional seeds. Supporting farmers to access these seed varieties offers agricultural policymakers and rural development organisations a clear mechanism to enhance household welfare and farm productivity.
The findings provide applied, field-tested evidence relevant to seed companies, agricultural input suppliers, and rural development agencies. Commercial seed producers could expand distribution networks for certified early-maturing hybrid maize seeds to rural smallholders. Because affordability remains a major adoption barrier, successful commercialisation and uptake require public-private partnerships or subsidy mechanisms that make improved hybrid seeds cost-competitive for small-scale farmers.
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This study examined maize productivity and the effect of hybrid maize varieties on household food-security of maize farmers in Kwara State Nigeria. Specifically, the study examined the technical efficiency of maize farms; the determined the effect of early maturing maize varieties on the food security status of farming households. This study utilized a random sampling procedure for the selection of 10 farmers in 12 villages making a total of 120 respondents, the data was collected in 2021. Descriptive statistics, stochastic frontier method and logit model were employed. About 54.2% of the respondents cultivated local late maturing maize varieties, 23.33% of the respondents cultivated medium-early maturing maize variety and 22.50% of the respondents cultivated early-maturing maize variety. The result showed that the mean technical efficiency level for the sample of small-scale farmers was 89.57%; 92.73% of the farmers who cultivated improved varieties were food-secure and 33.86% of the farmers who cultivated local varieties were also food-secure. About 52% of all the respondents were food-secure. The result also showed that planting early maturing maize, planting maize as the main crop, significantly increased food security while the number of extension visits reduced the food security level. It is therefore recommended that extension visits should increase to create awareness on the usage of early maturing maize varieties, improved seeds should be subsidized to an affordable price and household size should be reduced to increase food security status in farming households.
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DOI: 10.17097/agricultureatauni.1568484
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