social and economical analysis of small scale maize production in kura local government area of kano state, nigeria

this research covered three villages in kura local government area of kano state. the study described the socio-economic characteristics of maize producers and their production techniques and also determined the profitability and resource use efficiency in the maize production. structured questionnaires were used for primary data collection and 40 small scale producers were purposively selected base based on the scale of operation. the data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as percentage, mean, frequency distribution table; net farm income and multiple regression models. the results of this study show that 62.5% of maize producers are young with age ranging from 25 to 34 years. also 82.5% are married. about 78% of them have 1 to 9 number of dependent whereas 22.5% have 10-19 numbers of dependents. majority (82.5%) of the farmers practiced farming as their major occupation mainly as a source of income and food. about 85% of these producers operate with less than 2 ha of land. the average total return per hectare of maize is in the area was estimated at n178397.30, average total cost of production is n 82,461 per hectare and average profit per hectare is n95, 936.30. thus result revealed that maize production enterprise is profitable in the study area. the study recommends interventions by governmental and non governmental organizations in improving maize production in the study area. [ahmed, a. s., suleiman, a and aminu, a. social and economical analysis of small scale maize production in kura local government area of kano state, nigeria. international journal of agricultural science, research and technology in extension and education systems, 2013; 3(1):37-43]