A stochastic frontier approach to determine technical efficiency of cassava farmers in Ondo state, Nigeria

The stochastic frontier production model showed an improvement over the traditional average function and the deterministic functions, which use mathematical programming to construct production frontiers. The study was conducted to analyze the technical efficiency of sole cassava farmers in Ondo State using a stochastic frontier model. Primary data were obtained with the aid of a structured questionnaire, and a multistage sampling technique was used to sample 160 respondents. The result revealed that the variance of parameters (gamma and sigma squared) of the frontier production function was both significant at 1% levels. The mean technical efficiency was 0.732. Farm size and fertilizer were significant and had positive effect on output, whereas labour was significant and inversely related to the farmers’ technical efficiency. The determinants of technical inefficiency of cassava farmers in Ondo State indicated that sex (0.094), family sisze (0.209), level of education (-0.011), farming experience (-0.614), co-operative membership (-0.10), extension visit (-0.061) and access to credit (-0.100) are the significant variables that influenced technical inefficiency of cassava production among the respondents. It was therefore recommended that the government should encourage and fund research in fertilizer production, there should be farming education on cassava production, farmers should belong to farmers’ co-operative society, more extension officers should be employed, and banks should grant loans to farmers at low interest rates.