Research Paper Research Paper Future of Food: Journal on Food, Agriculture and Society 11 (2) May 2023 Measuring the economic performance of smallholder organic maize farms; Implications for food safety and security RIDWAN MUKAILA *1 , ABRAHAM FALOLA 2 , OLUTOSIN ADEMOLA OTEKUNRIN3 Data of the article First received : 17 September 2022 | Last revision received : 04 April 2023 Accepted : 25 May 2023| Published online :31 May 2023 DOI : 10.17170/kobra-202210056943 Keywords Food safety; maize farming; organic farms; proftability; organic seed cost Te use of chemical inputs in conventional agriculture is associated with some health and environmental issues. Tis led to a call for more sustainable and environmentally friendly agriculture without health issues. However, there is low participation in organic farming in Nigeria, which could be linked to less knowledge about its proftability. Te study investi- gated smallholder organic maize farming proftability in Northern Nigeria. We employed descriptive statistics, proftability analysis, and a multiple regression model to analyse data collected from 480 maize farmers. Te results revealed that organic maize farmers had a gross proft of USD 604.81 per hectare, a 0.46 proft ratio, a 0.54 gross ratio, a 0.32 operating ratio, a beneft-cost ratio of 1.85, and a 0.85 return on capital invested. Tus, organic maize farming is a productive and proftable venture. Organic manure, compost manure, farm size, selling price, cooperative membership, extension contact, access to credit, irrigation, education, and major occupation were factors that enhanced organic maize farming’s net proft. However, seed and transportation costs negatively infuenced organic maize farm- ing's net proft. Terefore, government and development agencies must intervene to make organic farming more sustainable and proftable by subsidizing seed costs and providing fnancial assistance to farmers. 1. Introduction 1 Agricultural activities in Nigeria and most developing nations are mainly on a small-scale level. More than 80% of Nigerian farmers are smallholders, who are re- sponsible for over 85% of the food produced locally in the country and contribute to the nation’s GDP (Mg- benka & Mbah, 2016; Obetta et al., 2020). Nigerian farmers, just like others in sub-Saharan Africa, prac- tice conventional agriculture where chemical inputs such as chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides are used. Chemical inputs serve as agents of pollution to the environment and their residual efects on crops also afect the nervous system, respiratory system, and gastrointestinal tract of human beings (Anitha et al., 2009). Due to the negative impacts, such as the poisoning of about 30 million people, leading to the death of 220,000 people yearly (Muhammad et al. 2016), asso- ciated with conventional agriculture, organic farming is gaining recognition and is emerging as an alterna- 1Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria 2Department of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria 3 Department of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Nigeria * Corresponding author: ridwan.mukaila@unn.edu.ng