Abstract
The technical and economic efficiencies of 36 government farms and 110 private farms were studied and their relative contributions to agricultural productivity in Rivers State, Nigeria, quantified. The empirical findings from the study revealed that the private farms realized a higher net farm profit per hectare than the government farms during the period under study. In addition, the private farms were more technically efficient in the use of factors of production as shown by the result of the Chow test. However, the test of economic efficiency in the use of the inputs showed that the two groups of farms over-utilized labour and land but under-utilized fertilizer and seed. The major policy prescription that emerged was that the government should withdraw from direct food production and instead focus its attention on good policy formulation that would enhance production in the private farms.
