TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF SUSTAINABLE CASSAVA FARMING IN KOGI STATE, NIGERIA

This study investigated technical efficiency of sustainable cassava farming in Yagba-West Local Government Area of Kogi State, Nigeria. The main objective is to determine technical efficiency of cassava farmers. A multistage random sampling technique was employed to select 110 cassava farmers and data were obtained using a well-structured questionnaire. Stochastic frontier production function model was used for the analysis of the data. The result of the maximum likelihood estimate of the stochastic frontier production function shows that farm size (5%), labour (1%), cassava stem-cutting (1%s), fertilizer (10%) and agrochemical (1%) contributed significantly to output of cassava farmers. Stochastic frontier estimate shows the values of gamma (0.97) and sigma square (0.02). Result reveals a mean efficiency index of 0.95 implying that output from cassava production could be increased by 4.2percent using available technology. Non-Physical factors that served as determinants of technical inefficiency were age, education, farming experience, extension contact access to credit and household-size which were all found to be significant. These findings suggest the need for further investment in agricultural research and development particularly in sustaining nutrition security and poverty reduction.