Analysis of Profitability and Resource Use Efficiency in Cassava Farming in Benue State of Nigeria

Analysis of Profitability and Resource Use Efficiency in Cassava Farming in Benue State of Nigeria

CHAPTER ONE

Objectives of the study

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the profitability and resource-use efficiency in cassava farming in Benue State, Nigeria. The specific objectives are to:

Describe the socio-economic characteristics of cassava farmers in the study
Estimate the costs and returns of cassava farming in the study
Estimate the production function for cassava farming in the study
Determine the resource use efficiency in cassava farming in the study
Determine the relationship between cassava farmers’ socio-economic characteristics and their output.
Estimate the elasticity of production and returns to scale in cassava farming in the study
Identify and describe the major constraints faced by cassava farmers in the study area.

CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW

Nigeria’s Cassava Production Trend

Cassava is one of the most important crops in Nigeria. Indeed, cassava is grown by almost every household. It is the most widely cultivated crop in the Southern part of the country in terms of the area of land devoted to it (that is, 59% of the total area under cultivation), while in the northern part of the country, the area under cultivation is 40% (Okoro and Ujah, 2009). It has also increased in importance in the Middle Belt in recent years. FAOSTAT (2014) showed that Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava in the world with a production of 32, 010,000 metric tonnes in 2000.

Importance of Cassava production

Cassava gained prominence in Nigeria in the year 2002 following the pronouncement of a Presidential initiative on Cassava production and export (Adebayo, 2009). The initiative was aimed at using cassava production as the engine of growth in Nigeria (Bamidele et al., 2008). Based on this, the Federal Government of Nigeria promulgated a law, making it mandatory for bakers to use composite flour made up of 10% cassava and 90% wheat for bread production in Nigeria. This new regulation, which came into effect in January 2005, stipulated that the large flour mills that supply flour to bakeries and confectioneries must mix cassava flour with wheat flour (CTA, 2005, as cited in Bamidele et al., 2008).

In Nigeria, as in most other developing countries, cassava is one of the most important carbohydrate sources. A large population of Nigerians depends on cassava daily as their main food in the forms of garri and fufu. The leaves of cassava are also consumed as vegetable, and contain appreciable amounts of proteins, minerals and vitamins (Nandi et al., 2011). Cassava is important not only as a food crop but as a major source of animal feed. Its use in the industry for production of livestock feed is not well known, but is gradually increasing especially as import substitution becomes prominent in the industrial sector of the economy (FMANR, 2000). As a cash crop, cassava generates cash income for the largest number of households in comparison with other staples. According to Nweke (2004), cassava is also less expensive to produce. It tolerates poor soil, adverse weather conditions, and pests and diseases more than other major staples. Cassava stores its harvestable portion underground until needed; it is therefore a classical food security crop (Asogwa et al., 2006). Every part of cassava is useful. As noted by Nweke (2004), the roots are processed and prepared as a subsistence crop for home consumption and for sale in village markets and urban centres. Cassava is also one of the richest fermentable substances for the production of alcohol. Cassava produces much more alcohol (150 litres/tonne of fresh roots) than sugarcane (48 litres/tonne) but has been used as a source of raw material for brewing alcohol without much success in Nigeria (Bamikole, 2002, Bamikole, 2003 as cited in IITA, 2004). A distillery using cassava to produce alcohol can operate all year round because cassava is always available. Nweke et al. (2002) maintained that cassava performs five main roles: famine reserve crop, rural food staple, cash crop for urban consumption, industrial raw material and foreign exchange earner.

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

Description of the Study Area

This study was conducted in Benue State of Nigeria. Benue State derives its name from the River Benue, which is the second largest River in Nigeria. Benue State is located in the North-Central geo-political zone. The State lies between latitudes 6⁰30 North to 8⁰ 10 North of the equator and longitudes 6⁰ 35 East to 10⁰ East of the Greenwich Meridian (Okwu et al., 2011). The State shares boundaries with five States, namely, Nasarawa to the North, Taraba to the East, Cross River to the South-East, Enugu to the South-West, and Kogi to the West. The Southern part of the State also shares boundary with the Republic of Cameroun. Benue State has an estimated population of about 4, 353, 228 people, using a population growth rate of 3.2% based on the 2006 population Census (NPC, 2006). Benue State occupies a land mass of 33,955Square kilometers. Benue state is made up of twenty- three (23) Local Government Areas with Makurdi as its capital. It is divided into three agricultural zones; namely, Zone A (Eastern Zone) with seven (7) local governments, Zone B (Northern Zone) with seven (7) local governments and Zone C (Central Zone) with nine (9) local governments. There are three (3) Agricultural Development Projects (ADP) zones in the state, with headquarters in Adipko (Zone A), Gboko (Zone B) and Otukpo (Zone C) respectively. Tiv, Idoma and Igede are the major languages spoken in the State. Benue State possesses a rich and diverse cultural heritage which finds expression in colourful cloths, exotic masquarades, music and dances.

Benue state has a tropical climate, with two distinct seasons, namely, the rainy season from April to October and the dry season from November to March. Average annual rainfall varies from 1750mm in the southern part of the state to 1250mm in the Northern part. The hot season comes in mid-April with temperatures between 32⁰C and 38⁰C. About 75% of the population lives in the rural areas and their main occupation is farming. With farmers predominantly engaged in rain-fed subsistence farming. The average farmer in Benue state has a farm holding of between 1.5 to 2.0 hectares (BNARDA, 1999). Benue state is referred to as the “food basket” of Nigeria because of the abundance of its agricultural resources.

CHAPTER FOUR RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Socio-economic Characteristics of the Respondents in the Study Area

This section describes the socio-economic characteristics of the cassava farmers such as age, gender, farming experience, household size, educational level, farm size, mode of farmland acquisition, number of extension visits, amount of credit obtained and cooperative membership.

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary

The study was conducted in Benue State to evaluate the profitability and resource use efficiency of cassava farming.

The specific objectives of this study were to describe the socio-economic characteristics of cassava farmers in the study area, estimate the costs and returns of cassava farming in the study area, estimate the production function for cassava farming in the study area, determine the resource use efficiency in cassava farming in the study area, estimate the elasticity of production and returns to scale in cassava farming in the study area, determine the relationship between cassava farmers’ socio-economic characteristics and their output, and identify and describe the major constraints faced by cassava farmers in the study area. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 186 respondents for this study. Primary data was the main instrument for this study and it was collected from the respondents through the interview method by the researcher using sets of structured questionnaire with the aid of enumerators from the Benue State Agricultural and Rural Development Agency (BNARDA). The data were analyzed using Descriptive statistics, Production function, Multiple regression analysis and Gross Margin analysis. The results of the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers revealed that majority of the farmers (30.65percent) were within the active age group of 31 – 40 years. 72 percent of the cassava farmers were male and 28 percent were female. 57 percent had household size of 5 – 9 and 26.30 percent had household size of 10 – 14. Most of the farmers had farming experience of 10 – 19 years. 64 percent of the farmers had formal education while 36 percent had no formal education. The results of this study further showed that 76.90 percent obtained credit less than 50,000 naira and only 4.80 percent had no access to credit. 62.40 percent were members of cooperative association. The result also revealed that majority of the cassava farmers (56.50 percent) cultivated on farm sizes of about 0.1 to 1.0 hectare while only about 2.10 percent had farm sizes of 4.1 to 6 hectares. And their farm land was mostly acquired by inheritance (78.50 percent). Majority of the farmers (62.40 percent) had contact with extension services, only about 25.30 percent had no extension contact. The results of the relationship between the farmers’ socio-economic characteristics and their cassava output revealed that farmers’ age, gender, education, farming experience and years of cooperative membership were significantly related to their output. Age was negatively related to cassava output while gender, education, farming experience, and cooperative membership were positively related to cassava output. The negative relationship for age implies that, an increase in age would lead to a decrease in cassava output while the positive relationship for the other variables implies that, as these variables increases, the output also increases.

The results of the input and output level in cassava production revealed that the average cuttings used by cassava farmers were 144kg per hectare. The average labour used was 232.62 man days per hectare. The average land area under cassava production in the study area is 1.28 hectares. Average inorganic fertilizer used by cassava farmers was 439.27kg per hectare.

Conclusion

Cassava farming was found to be a profitable enterprise in the study area because it recorded a Net Farm Income of N59,077 per hectare and a return on investment of 0.27 which implies that for every Naira spent in cassava farming, a profit of 27kobo is realized. The results of this study revealed that resources were not efficiently used by the cassava farmers in the study area. Some resources were under-utilized while others were over-utilized. The farmers should be encouraged through technical training on production techniques/ practices that will improve their productivity especially in those areas of inefficiency and underutilization of inputs. This study has also revealed that revealed that the cassava farmers’ age, gender, education, farming experience and years of cooperative membership were significantly related to their output. Farmers are encouraged to go into cassava farming as it is a profitable enterprise in the study area.

Recommendations

Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are made:

Government should develop cost effective storage facilities for these famers in order to make products readily available on demand and also to reduce post- harvest losses due to lack of adequate storage
Agricultural policy measures should be taken towards provision of ready market with stable prices for cassava produce through creation of marketing boards by the
Labour was found to be the variable that accounted for the highest cost of production and it was over-utilized. Attempts at reducing labour cost will lead to greater Net Farm Income and subsequently, the overall profitability of the enterprise.
Relevant infrastructures such as good access roads from farm gates to markets, electricity and good water supply should be made available by either the government or private
Since the government does not have and will probably may not have for a long time, enough extension staff and resources for the current extension system, alternative extension strategies such as group extension methods, more cooperative groups, etc should be evolved to complement the existing

Contribution to Knowledge

This study has provided the following information:

Not all the resources were efficiently used by the cassava farmers in the study area. The efficiency ratios of labour, fertilizer and agro-chemicals were less than unity (0.42, -0.08 and -0.60.58 respectively), indicating that they wereover-utilized. While the efficiency ratios of cassava cuttings and farmland were greater that unity (68.21 and 12.80 respectively) indicating that they were under- utilized.
Cassava farming was found to be a profitable enterprise with a net farm income of N59,077 and return on investment of27.
The major constraints faced by cassava farmers in the study area are poor storage facilities (84.4%), inadequate supply of improved planting materials (63.4%), inadequate capital (58.6%), poor access roads to market (55.9%), problem of pests and diseases (32.3%), inadequate extension delivery (25.8%) and inadequate labour-saving devices (23.7%)

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