PAPER TITLE :AN ANALYSIS OF TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF SMALLHOLDER CASSAVA FARMERS IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

APPLIED TROPICAL AGRICULTURE | VOLUME 22 NUMBER 2 2017

Paper Details

  • Author(s) : Isitor, S.U, Adeyonu, A.G. and Aniegboka, U.N.
  • Abstract:

Despite the various cassava programmes and policies implemented over the years to raise farmers’ efficiency and
productivity in cassava production, farmers have not yet attained the desired technical efficiency in cassava production as a
result of insufficient access to farm input such as fertilizers and herbicides. This study was carried out to investigate the
factors affecting technical efficiency of cassava production among smallholder farmers in Anambra State, Nigeria. Data
were collected from 120 cassava farmers through a multi-stage sampling procedure during the 2013/2014 planting season.
Descriptive statistics and stochastic frontier function that incorporated inefficiency effect using the Maximum Likelihood
Estimation (MLE) technique were the analytical tools. The results showed that the mean age of farmers was 47.60 years and
the majority of them (63.3%) and (63.9%) were male and married respectively. About half of the respondents had primary
education with about 43.0% having more than 19 years of cassava farming experience. The average farm size and household
size stood at 0.9 hectares and 7 members respectively. The Maximum Likelihood Estimates of the production function show
that the technical efficiencies of the farmers were found to be low with an average of 51.5% which implies that average
cassava output fell short by 48.5% of the maximum possible level. The study further reveals that only education (0.210) and
access to credit (0.202) are the factors that significantly influenced technical inefficiency of cassava farms in the study area.
This study concludes that technical efficiency of smallholder cassava farmers in the study area was low and this was
influenced by their level of education and access to credit. Therefore, the study recommends training of farmers and
improvement on their access to credit.
Key words: Anambra State, cassava farmers, smallholder, stochastic frontier, technical efficiency