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Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important cereal crops in Nigerian agriculture. The crop occupies a crucial place than other cereal crops since it is used as food, feeds, fodder and other industrial raw material. The study analyzed the socio-economic characteristics of maize farmers and cost and returns per hectare. Multistage sampling technique was employed to select Ninety seven (97) maize producing farmers for the study. Data for the study were collected using structured questionnaires. The result of the analysis showed that the mean age for respondents was 46 years while more than half of them were literates. The major source of finance for the farmers was personal savings while the average land area cultivated was 2.6 hectares. The average gross margin analysis was estimated to be ₦7,228.71 per hectare indicating that maize production is profitable in the study area. Other economic indices were gross farm ratio obtained as 0.813, which indicates that the farmers got higher return/₦, also the operating ratio was 0.815 all pointing towards how profitable the venture in the study area.
The study examined the technical efficiency of sheep fattening in the Gombi Local Area of Adamawa State. Data were collected from a random sample of 90 sheep fatteners by means of snow ball sampling technique to which questionnaires were administered. The regression model was used to determine the relationship between variable inputs and output and also efficiency of resources used. The Cobb-Douglas production function gave the best fit equation with an R2 of 0.607which means that about 61% of the variability of output is being explained by the variables included in the model .The analysis showed that medication and labour are highly significant at 1% while feed, salt-lick; water and length of fattening are significant at 10% respectively. Resource productivity analysis revealed that medication and salt-lick were under-utilized while feeds were over-utilized and labour were efficiently utilize. The major problems facing the farmers include high cost of feeds, inadequate credit facilities, and high cost of medication. A policy and research emphasis should be geared toward feeds production at affordable price to the fatteners and fatteners should be educated on how to formulate local feeds to reduce cost and access to feeds for better efficiency