Determinants of food security and technical efficiency of cassava farmers in Ondo State, Nigeria

Abstract

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.

Determinants of Food Security and Technical Efficiency among Agricultural Households in Nigeria

“…While nearly 81.1% of households' heads are male, their mean age is about 53 years which signifies that agricultural farming households in the sample are male dominant and still in their active age. This result is similar to the findings reported by Balogun and Akinyemi (2017) and Ajayi and Olutumise (2018). On the average, agricultural households size measured by the count of all members inclusive of the household head is about eight, which clearly indicates a large household and possible a plus for family labour use in farmlands.…”

“…This also points out that as households head grow older, their probability of being food-insecure is higher. A similar finding was found in (Ajayi and Olutumise 2018). In addition to this, larger agricultural household size has a higher probability of being food insecure, this was significant at 1%.…”

“…As such, predictors of technical efficiencies and food security can be quite related. We found only one study by Ajayi and Olutumise (2018) to be relevant. The study assessed the predictors of food security and technical efficiency, however in a single crop enterprise at the state level.…”

“…In terms of technical efficiency, most of the existing literature studies focused on estimating efficiency with emphasis on a single crop and their predictors either in a single equation or using a two-step approach (see Tijani 2006;Ajayi and Olutumise 2018;Oluwatayo and Adedeji 2019). With the focus on a single crop, Tijani (2006) and Ajayi and Olutumise (2018) estimated the mean technical efficiency of rice and cassava farmers to be 86.6 percent and 83 percent, respectively in Nigeria. A first attempt to measure technical efficiencies considering multiple cropping was conducted by Ogundari (2013).…”

Does agricultural cooperative membership impact technical efficiency of maize production in Nigeria: An analysis correcting for biases from observed and unobserved attributes

“…Indeed, previous studies on this subject, for example, Hailu et al [ 20 ], Ainembabazi et al [ 3 ], and Wollni and Brümmer [ 21 ] assume that the decision to participate in cooperatives or otherwise is random and may not be affected by unobserved factors. A few studies related to this subject in Nigeria, to our utmost knowledge, also follow suit on this assumption and consequently included cooperative membership as an explanatory variable in the efficiency model (for example [ 23 , 24 ]). However, in reality, farmer’s decision to join cooperatives is non-random which simply implies that such a decision is based on the individual farmer’s self-selection into membership.…”