[01] Abdulkarim Yusuf, Department of Economics and Management Sciences, Nigeria Police Academy, Wudil- Kano, Nigeria. [02] Yunana Titus Wuyah, Department of Economics and Management Sciences, Nigeria Police Academy, Wudil- Kano, Nigeria.

The study examines the resource use efficiency in sweet potato production among small scale farmers in Zaria Local Government Area of Kaduna State. Primary data were collected from 120 small scale sweet potato producers with the aid of structured questionnaire from five villages. Based on their production strength, twenty four sweet potato farmers were chosen from each village using the simple random sampling technique. The analytical tools employed were descriptive statistics, gross margin analysis technique, correlation analysis and production function analysis. The result of the correlation analysis reveals that educational status, farm size and farming experience had strong positive correlation with sweet potato output while the result of the empirical Cobb Douglas production function reveals that the production inputs were able to explain variation in the level of output significantly by sixty eight percent [68%]. The findings of the study showed that the cost of production was N49, 069.00 per hectare with labour accounting for the highest cost item. The gross margin obtained was N44, 573.90 per hectare. The study equally shows that the factor inputs considered in sweet potato production were inefficiently utilized as demonstrated by their various efficiency ratios and with regards to return to scale, sweet potato farmers exhibited increasing return to scale.

Small Scale Farmers, Gross Margin Analysis, Efficiency Ratio, Elasticity of Production, Correlation Analysis

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