DETERMINANTS OF EFFICIENCY AMONG ADOPTERS AND NON-ADOPTERS OF IMPROVED CASSAVA VARIETIES IN OGUN STATE, NIGERIA.

Abstract

Cassava forms an important component of Nigerian communities. Its cultivation however is still done using crude techniques and simple tools such as cutlasses and hoes. This paper investigates the determinants of efficiency among adopters (172 households) and non-adopters (44 households) of improved cassava varieties in Ogun State Nigeria. Primary data were collected through the use of structured questionnaires from 216 cassava farm households obtained in a multi-stage sampling procedure from four Local Government Areas. Stochastic frontier production function using maximum likelihood estimation MLE was used to analyse the technical efficiency. The results revealed that 57.40 percent of the farmers were within the age range of 31-50 years, 58.30% had farm size ranging from 1-2.49 hectares while 79.62 percent were adopters of improved cassava varieties. Farm size, fertiliser, and herbicides were the major inputs that are associated with the variation in cassava output for both adopters and non-adopters. The significant socio economic variables that accounted for the observed variations in technical efficiency among farm households were age, education, farming experience, extension contact, sex and marital status. Similar result was obtained for high and low adopters of improved cassava varieties. An assessment of the technical efficiency shows that a differential of 19 percent (89-70) exist between adopters and non-adopters and a differential of 12 percent (82 -70) between high and low adopters of improved cassava varieties while the elasticities is less than one signifying that the farm households are operating at a point of decreasing return to scale which is the rational stage at which production should normally take place. However, both adopters and non-adopters operate below the economic optimum point indicating that there is some inefficiency in the allocation of inputs. It is therefore recommended that government should strengthen the adult education programme and improve the extension services delivery system while farm input such as herbicides and fertilisers should be made available at subsidised rate in the area.