Optimization Plan for Agricultural Enterprises among the Military Personnel

Abstract

Agriculture is the only form of enterprise military personnel are officially allowed to embark on in addition to defending the Nation and ensuring its national security. While the military are engage in different agricultural enterprises, there is insufficient empirical information on the returns to agricultural enterprises among the personnel. The aim of the study was to investigate economic analysis of agricultural production enterprises among the Nigerian military personnel. The objectives were to: (i) assess the level of capacity for implementing optimal plan for agricultural enterprises; and (ii) determine the optimal plan for the enterprises.Based on survey as the research design, 275 military personnel from 10 out of all military formations across Nigeria used were selected through a two-stage sampling technique. A structured questionnaire with a reliability coefficient of 0.86 was used for the study. Descriptive statistics, linear programming, and logistic regression were used for data analysis. Tests of significance were carried out at 0.05 alpha level. The results shows that optimal plan for crop production was 3.25ha of yam/ maize enterprise with a total gross margin of N811,040.00 per season, that of livestock was 12.53 tropical livestock unit (tlu) of cattle and 2.728 tlu of layers, giving a total gross margin of N1,173,070.00 per annum; Commissioning status, marital status, and farming experience were the factors that affect the capacity to implement optimal plan for crop production while farming experience and farm income were the factors that affect the capacity to implement optimal plan for livestock production.