INTRODUCTION - Background Information
Cassava (Manihot
spp.) is listed along with yams, rice, maize, sorghum, and millet as the
main food crops in Nigeria (NEEDS, 2004). It is cultivated majorly for its carbohydrate
rich edible root tubers. Because of the high costs of production of other food
crops (coupled with their high agro-climatic requirements), they are more
expensive compared to cassava, and may not be accessible to the urban poor at
some periods of the year (Tsegai and Kormawa 2002). Thus, with the growing
population in Nigeria and declining real incomes, cassava has the potential to
become a highly demanded food crop.
Cassava
is important not only as food crop but more as a major source of income for
rural households. Nigeria is currently the largest producer of cassava in the
world
with annual production of over 34million tons of tuberous roots. Both
rich and the poor farmers often sell a high proportion of cassava than other
crops. According to (Ogunniyi, et al, 2012),
cassava has some inherent characteristics, which makes it attractive especially
to the smallholder farmer in Nigeria. Firstly, it is rich in carbohydrates,
which makes it useful in some industries and consequently has a multiplicity of
end uses. Secondly, it is available all year round compare to other crops as it
is more tolerant to low soil fertility and resistant to drought, pests and
diseases. These attributes combine with other socio-economic considerations are
therefore what IFAD has recognized in the crop as lending itself to a commodity
– based approach to poverty alleviation (FAO/IC, 1995).
Cassava is a very important crop in
Nigeria. Its comparative production advantage over other staples has made the
government to encourage its cultivation even by the resource poor farmers. The
crop production is generally thought to require less labour per unit of output
than other major staples. Cassava is able to grow and give reasonable yields in
low fertile soils. It is a good staple whose cultivation if encouraged can
provide the nationally required food security minimum of 2400 calories per
person per day (FAO, 2000).
Recently, production figures ranked
Nigeria as the leading producer of cassava in the world. In 2004, the estimated
cassava output from Nigeria was approximately 34 million tonnes. Similarly,
CBN, (2004) reported that out of 186 million metric ton produced in the world,
Nigeria accounted for 36 million metric tons (Tell, 2004) and in 2004
production was 55.69 million metric tons. This shows a slow rate in the past
compared to the present times in production but more need to be done. This
production performance has rated Nigeria as the largest cultivator of cassava
in the world (FAO, 2004). This feat is sequel to the on-going cassava
multiplication programme in the country (Root and Tubers Expansion Programme
(RTEP), 2002).
In 2002, cassava suddenly gained
prominence in Nigeria following the pronouncement of a presidential initiative
on the crop. The initiative was aimed at using cassava production as the engine
of growth in Nigeria. In recent times, government has encouraged the use of the
crop to produce a wide range of industrial products such as ethanol, glue,
glucose syrup and bread. Recently, the Nigerian government promulgated a law,
making it compulsory for bakers to use composite flour of 10 percent cassava
and 90 percent wheat for bread production. The new regulation which came into
effect January 2005, stipulated that the large flour mills that supply flour to
bakeries and confectioneries must pre-mix cassava flour with flour (Technical
for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), 2005). Similar effort has been
made in the area of research and development of improved varieties of cassava
that are resistance cassava mosaic diseases (CMD) and high yielding. The
varieties released after 2 years from IITA and NRCRI were TMS 98/0510, TMS
98/0581, TMS 97/2205, TMS 98/0505, TME 419, TMS 92/0326, TMS 96/1632, TMS
98/0002, TMS 92/0057, and NR87184 (Dixon et al., 2006). From data analysis of
2500 trials (OFTs, DEMO, MLTs, and NCRP, across 2 years) these released
varieties were found to have multiple resistance/tolerance to CMD and other
major problems of cassava, bacterial blight disease, anthracnose, green mite,
and mealybug. They are high yielding, suitable for use as food and livestock feed,
also as a raw material in industry.
Various parts of cassava such as the
leaves, stem and roots are used for different purposes. The leaves are common
vegetables among the Sierra Leoneans while the stem is used as planting
material during cassava production. The root tuber which is the most desirable
component is processed into various products like garri, cassava flour (lafun),
fufu and tapioca. It is a rich source of industrial alcohol (ethanol) and
starch. The export drive for the crop increased the demand for cassava and
promoted its cultivation (CBN, 2004).
Cassava is grown throughout the tropic
and could be regarded as the most important root crop in terms of area
cultivated and total production (Ano, 2003). It is a very important staple food
consumed in different forms by millions of Nigerians. Cassava roots are rich in
energy, containing mainly starch and soluble carbohydrates, but are poor in
protein. Cassava is a crop of the poor, and occupies mainly agriculturally
mineral environments.
Cassava can be grown on a wide range
and can yield satisfactorily even in acidic soils where most other crops fails
(Hahn, 1984), the crop has continually played very vital roles, which include
income for farmers, low cost food source for both the rural and urban dwellers
as well as household food security (Nweke 1996). In Nigeria, cassava is
generally believed to be cultivated by small scaled farmers with low resources
(Ezebuiro et al, 2008). It also plays a major role in the effort to alleviate
the food crisis in Africa.
Presently, cassava is primarily
produced for food especially in the form of gari, lafun and fufu
with little or no use in the agribusiness sector as an industrial raw
material (Knipscheer, et al 2007). However, the crop can be processed into
several secondary products of industrial market value. These products include
chips, pellets, flour, adhesives, alcohol, and starch, which are vital raw
materials in the livestock feed, alcohol/ethanol, textile, confectionery, wood,
food and soft drinks industries.
The concept of efficiency can be said
to deal with the relative performance of the processes used in the
transformation of inputs into outputs. Economic theory’s discussion of
efficiency distinguishes it into two types; allocative efficiency and technical
efficiency. Farrell (1957) one of the pioneers of efficiency studies
distinguished the two types of efficiency through the use of the frontier
production function (Xu and Jeffrey, 1998). Technical efficiency is defined by
the duo as the ability to produce a given level of output with a minimum
quantity of inputs under certain technology. Allocative efficiency refers to
the ability of choosing optimal input levels for given factor prices. The total
efficiency otherwise called economic efficiency is the product of technical and
allocative efficiency. The degree to which technical and allocative efficiency
are achieved is referred to as production efficiency.
Efficiency
is a very important factor of productivity growth especially in developing
agrarian economies, where resources are meager and opportunities for developing
and adopting better technologies are dwindling. Such economies can benefit from
efficiency studies which show that it is possible to raise productivity by
improving efficiency without increasing the resource base or developing new
technologies. Raising productivity and output of small farmers would not only
increase their incomes and food security, but also stimulate the rest of the
economy and contribute to broad-based food security and poverty alleviation
(Lipton, 2005). Thus, increasing the technical efficiency of cassava producers
in Ndokwa West Local Government Area of Delta state will promote cassava
production output and further bring about the actualization of the presidential
initiative on cassava production in Nigeria.
PROJECT WRITTEN BY
UGBOME CHIOMA RUTH
EBSU/WASP/2005/6113
IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT
FOR AWARD OF
BACHALOR OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE (B.AGRIC) IN
AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS MANAGEMENT AND
EXTENSION,
FACULTY OF AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL
RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (FARM).