FACTORS AFFECTING TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF CASSAVA FARMERS IN KWARA AND NASARAWA STATES, NIGERIA

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study assessed the factors that affect technical efficiency of Cassava farmers in Kwara and Nasarawa States. Nigeria. The data for this research work were obtained through primary source of use structured questionnaire and interviewed schedules. Six ADP zones out of sew in Kwara and Nasarawa States were considered for this study. Multistage random sampling technique was used to select two hundred and fifty six (256) respondents for this study. Data obtained through the primary source were analyzed with the following analytical techniques descriptive statistics, gross margin analysis and multiple linear regression model. Majority (79.6%) of the respondents were within the age bracket of in to 55years and most (94.1%) of the respondents were male. Data revealed that most (97.7%) of respondents were married. Statistics, also shows that majority (82.7%) of the respondents possess one form of education or the other. Findings also indicated that 64.5% of respondents had household size that ranged from 1 to 10. Results further showed that most (94.5%) of the respondents owned farm size that ranged from I to 5 hectares. The study indicated that majority (65.2%) of the respondents did not have access to credit facilities in the study area Results also indicates that majority (75.4%) of the respondents acquired land by inheritance. Majority (47.7%) of the respondents had II to 20 years of farming experience. Results also showed that most (71%) of the respondents did not belong to any cooperative society. Data indicates that most (64.1%) of the respondents do not have access to extension services. Cassava farmers obtained N178.765.19 per hectare as gross returns of production while the total costs per hectare was N 72.093.00, net farm income obtained was N1 06.672.19 and returns on investment was N 2.48. Findings also revealed that fertilizer (5.01), herbicide (1.89) farm size. (8.84). access to credit (2.62) educational level (2.40) years of experience (6.26) and extension contact (7.42) hat the expected positive signs. This implies that a unit increase in these inputs will lead to increase in the output level of cassava, white cassava stem (0.19) had no significant effect on the output level of cassava farmers in the study area. Shortage of extension services (100%) ranked first among the constraints faced by cassava farmers In the study area. It is recommended that there is need for Government and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) to coordinate more research into latest varieties of cassava, production techniques to serve as extension trackages since extension contact was found to affect the technical efficiency.