Demand-Driven Technologies for Sustainable Maize ... - IITA

408Table 3. Average labor costs and their relative proportions for the variousfarm operations in the community seed multiplication projectconducted in Taraba and Gombe States in Nigeria.Activities Average cost (N /ha) % Total labor costClearing 1,586 7Ridging 3,514 16Planting 1,057 5Weeding 3,510 16Fertilizer application 1,400 6Earthing up 2,392 11Harvesting 4,000 18Shelling 4,625 21Total 22,084 100Table 4. Total costs of production and their relative proportions in thecommunity seed multiplication project conducted in Taraba andGombe States in Nigeria.Inputs Average cost (N/ha)* % Total cost of productionLabor 22,084 53Fertilizer 7,814 19Seed 5,000 12Herbicide 6,617 16Insecticide 300 1Total cost 41,815 100*About N130=US$1meet the labor requirement of seed production; therefore, a substantialamount of hired labor was used. The labor costs for the various farmoperations are presented in Table 3. An average of N22, 084.14/hawas incurred on labor. The cost of harvesting and shelling accountedfor about 35% of the total labor costs.The total variable cost of cultivating one hectare of maize seed wasestimated at about N41,815.43 (Table 4). Labor costs accounted forabout 53% of the total costs while the cost of fertilizer, herbicide andseed constituted about 19, 16 and 12%. Fertilizer was given to farmerson credit at the onset of the project while seed was given to them freeof charge by the project. In the subsequent years, however, farmersbought their fertilizers and seeds from local markets and some tookseeds from past harvests.The average seed yield was about 21 bags/ha. At N8000/bag, thetotal revenue (TR) was N168,000/ha. Thus, the gross margin (GM),which was estimated as GM=TR–TVC, was N126,185 while the returnto investment on maize seed production (that is, GM÷TVC) was 3.02.Thus, about N3.00 was obtained in return for every Naira invested inmaize seed production. Although the farmers had some problem in