ABSTRACT
The study examined the profitability and technical
efficiency
of cheese producers in Plateau State, Nigeria. The
State has a total number of 19 local
government areas. Three of these local government
areas were randomly selected, that is Langtang East, Jos South, and barkin ladi
local government areas,
from which four villages were randomly selected,
which was followed by a random selection of ten cheese producers from each
village, making a total of 120
respondents. Data were generated through the use
of well structured questionnaires which were administered to the respondents
and descriptive statistics,
gross margin analysis and chi-square test were the
analytical tools employed. The study showed that all the respondents were
female with 88.3% married
and 83.3% of the respondents derived their income
primarily from cheese production. The study also showed that cheese production
is profitable with a net
farm income of N 15,295 per month. The fixed cost
contributed less than 1% of the total cost while the cost of milk accounted for
more than 70% of the total
variable cost. It was also observed that the mean
technical eiciency
of the cheese producers was 97.49%, the most
technically eicient
cheese producer has 100.00% while the least
technically efficient
cheese producer has 46.45%. The study therefore
shows that cheese production is profitable and the producers are highly
technically efficient.