Technical Efficiency of Cassava Cooperative Farmers in South-South, Nigeria: A Comparative Analysis
Abstract
This paper used the stochastic frontier production function to analyze the technical efficiency of 90 randomly selected cooperative cassava farmers in comparison to 90 non-cooperative cassava farmers in South-South, Nigeria. The result showed that labour, land preparation, planting materials, fertilizer and farm size were positively related to cassava production for cooperative farmers and at 1% level of significance, whereas, land preparation and cuttings had the same effect for their counterparts. Technical efficiency analysis revealed the presence of cost inefficiency effects in cassava production at 95 and 91% for both cooperatives and non-cooperative farmers, respectively. It showed that 36.6, 33.3 and 16.6% of the cooperative farmers were 90, 80 and 70% technology efficient, respectively, while, 11.1, 24.4 and 11.1% of the non-cooperative farmers were 90, 80 and 70% technology efficient, also. The minimum efficiency for cooperative and non-cooperative farmers was 0.63 and 0.31; the maximum was 0.92 and 0.99, and the mean 0.92 and 0.85 respectively. Coefficients of Age, experience, household size and education were positive and significant for cooperative farmers with the mean technical efficiency value of 0.724. However, experience was significant for non-cooperative farmers with the mean technical efficiency value of 0.609. The study concluded that the mean technical efficiency of cooperative cassava farmers was comparatively and significantly higher than the non-cooperative farmers. The study recommended that factors that will enhance membership into effective and viable farmers' cooperatives societies should be addressed. Such factors include a robust/focused extension education, conscious/consistent awareness of the comparative advantage of cooperative societies and creating an easy/acceptable framework for its operation.
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