Cassava is one of the most important staple food crops in Nigeria. It is one of the priority food crops necessary for improved food security and poverty reduction in Nigeria. The study investigated the determinants of food security and technical efficiency of cassava farmers in Ondo State, Nigeria using Food Security index, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Heckman probit model. The study used primary data and a multistage sampling technique was used to randomly select 120 respondents. Findings revealed that 43% of the respondents were food secured. The shortfall and surplus indices were 0.13 and 0.20 respectively. DEA results indicated that about 80% of the respondents had technical efficiency above 0.50 while the average technical efficiency was 0.83. The results of Heckman probit model also showed that farming experience, education, age, cassava output, number of dependants, access to credit, access to extension agent, distance to farm and farm size were the factors that influenced technical efficiency and food security in the study area. It is therefore concluded that improving technical efficiency of the cassava farmers will be an antidote to the problem of food insecurity in the area. This can be achieved by improving agricultural extension services as well as the educational background of the farmers to strengthen the activities of the Agricultural Credit Schemes policy to grant more loans to farmers at a low interest rate for increased productivity and subsequent increase in technical efficiency thereby improving food security further in Ondo State.

This paper appraised cocoa marketing performance in Osun State, Nigeria. The study specifically examined the costs and returns associated with cocoa marketing, and determined factors affecting cocoa marketing performance in the area. Primary data were used and collected through a well structured questionnaire and focus group discussion session. A multistage sampling procedure was employed to randomly select 120 respondents for the study. The analytical tools used were: descriptive statistics, budgetary analysis and Seeming Unrelated Regression Equation (SURE).The results of costs and returns using budgetary analysis showed that cocoa marketing is a profitable enterprise with a Return on Investment (ROI) of 1.36 which implies that cocoa marketer will realize 36Kobo on each naira expended. Again, percentage profit of over 35% further confirmed that cocoa marketing is a highly profitable venture in the study area. The SURE results showed that age of the cocoa marketers, marital status, household size, years of education, years of marketing experience, marketer institution group, depreciation cost on fixed inputs, number of stores, cost of labour, cost of transportation, season of sales, cocoa bean quality and incidence of theft were statistically significant factors affecting performance of cocoa marketing in the study area.

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This study evaluates the efficiency of palm oil production in the Edo State of Nigeria. Primary data were collected using a set of structured questionnaire from one hundred and ten (110) smallholders' palm oil producers which were selected using multistage sampling techniques. The stochastic frontier production and cost functions model were used to predict the firm level technical and economic efficiencies respectively. The results of the Stochastic Frontier Production Function analysis indicated that the major factors that influenced the output of palm oil production in the study area were quantity of Fresh Fruit Bunch, labour and water. From the result of the inefficiency model, the major factors which influenced the technical efficiency of the respondents were; gender, level of education and years of experience. The return to scale (RTS) yields 0.188 which indicates a positive decreasing return to scale and that the palm oil production in the study area was in stage II of the production.The technical efficiency of palm oil producers ranges from 0.65 to 0.95 with a mean Original Research Article