Relationship between plot size and technical efficiency of cassava farms in oyo state of nigeria: a stochastic frontier analysis

The general objective of the study was to examine the relationship between plot size and technical efficiency in cassava production in Oyo State of Nigeria. Specifically, the study estimated technical efficiency of cassava farmers; determined the most productive resource in cassava production as well as determined the nature of return to cassava production. Data obtained from 120 representative cassava farmers were analyzed by the use of Stochastic Frontier Production Function technique. Results obtained showed that labour was the most significant productive resource in cassava production. Results further showed that plot size had negative relationship with technical efficiency. Level of education and amount of credit obtained were the significant factors of cassava farmers’ technical efficiencies. The value of 0.8024 obtained for returns to scale showed that cassava farmers were operating in the rational zone of production surface. The study suggested that cassava farmers should reduce their cassava plot size to a manageable size; more credit should be made available to cassava farmers while most of the educated farmers should pay more attention to the operations on their farms in order to reduce their level of technical inefficiency.