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Abstract
The study analyzed the effects of land administration on allocative efficiency of rice farmers in Dadinkowa Irrigation Scheme (DKIS) area of Gombe and Borno States, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 400 rice farmers under irrigation farming. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data. Specifically, descriptive statistics was used to identify the types of land administration processes and land exchange approaches, and evaluate the performance of land administration in the study area. Stochastic frontier model was used to estimate the allocative efficiency of rice farmers. Tobit regression analysis was used to assess the effects of land administration, land exchange and other factors on allocative efficiency of rice farmers in the study area. The result showed that, despite the fact that all lands belong to the government, land transactions were carried out informally under customary laws with poor or lack of documentation. The result also revealed that land administration was efficient (67%) in the study area and especially in DKIS (0.74).The study also found that farmers were allocatively efficient given the current level of technology, and efficiency could be increased if the available resources are efficiently used. From the result, farmers under the administration of Integrated Savanna Vegetables and Fruits Canning Factory (VEGFRU) and local authority are more allocatively efficient than those under the administration of DKIS and National Institute of Horticultural Research and Training (NIHORT) and College of Horticulture (CoH) (NIHORT/CoH). Improvement in land administration service deters farmers from efficiently allocating resources for production. Similarly, an increase in hired labour decreases the allocative efficiency of farmers. It was recommended that land administration system should clearly state rights related to the use of government lands and allow land transactions such as the sale of rights of occupancy, the transfer of leasehold rights or rent among farmers so as to strengthen the land markets and improve the efficient use of land. Government should also facilitate the process of obtaining property rights on local lands so as to eliminate the anxiety and uncertainty of expropriation that discourage farmers to make long term investment decision on land and or to use land as collateral for credit.