The study estimated the technical efficiency of irrigated rice farmers in Niger State of Nigeria. A multistage
sampling technique was employed for the selection of respondents for the study. A total of 60
respondents selected at random from the study area were administered structured pre-tested questionnaires.
Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics, stochastic frontier production function and inefficiency
model. The results showed that the irrigated rice production in the study area was practiced under small-scale
production system. The average observed output of the farmers and frontier output were 3.63 and 4.11 metric
tons per hectare, respectively. The presence of technical inefficiency effect in the irrigated rice production as
indicated by the log-likelihood ratio test (7.044) was not significant. The insignificant presence of inefficiency
in the farmers’ production was confirmed by the gamma coefficient (0.003) which indicated that only 0.3% of
the deviation of output from the production frontier was attributed to technical inefficiency. The average
technical efficiency of the farmers was 92%, leaving a gap of 8% for improvement. Despite the high level of
technical efficiency of the farmers, their average observed output and the output of the most efficient farmers
per hectare given the production technologies employed were lower than the maximum potential yield of the
irrigated rice by 3.37 and 2.89 metric tons per hectare, respectively, indicating low levels of production
technologies utilized by the farmers. Thus, boosting irrigated rice production in the study area requires
improvement in the levels of technologies used by the farmers.