ANALYSIS OF PROFITABILITY OF SESAME PRODUCTION IN YOBE STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Purpose: The study examined the profitability of sesame (Sesanum indicum) production in Yobe State, Nigeria. Methodology: One hundred and eighty (180) sesame farmers were sampled from 12 villages spread across three Local Government Areas in Yobe State using multistage sampling procedure.  The descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentages and mean were used to describe the socioeconomic characteristics of farmers and constraints associated with sesame production. The inferential statistics employed was the Gross margin (GM) which was used to estimate the profitability of sesame production. Findings: The result of socioeconomic characteristics revealed that majority (77.77%) of the respondents were aged between 21-60 years old and all (100%) of the respondents had one form of education or the other. The result of profitability of sesame production revealed that the gross margin (GM) was  N157,519.00 and the average return per Naira invested was N2.07. Some of the major constraints faced by farmers in sesame production are inadequate fund (88.7%), inadequate extension services (72.0%), problem of pest and disease (66.1%) among others. Recommendations: the study recommended that strategies to improve profitability should focus on improved farmer access to institutional credits and improved infrastructural facilities such as access roads for easy linkage to markets. Also, In order to cope with the problem of inadequate and high cost of seed, the government and research institute should make improved seed available at the right time and also at subsidies rate to the farmers. Keywords: sesame production, profitability, constraints, gross margin, Yobe State