Profitability and Resource Use Efficiency among Cassava-based Farmers in Ondo State, Nigeria

Cassava is an important crop with great potential to improve agricultural growth owing to its wide range of use including consumption and industrial use. Previous studies have analyzed the resource use efficiency with little or no consideration for scientific procedure of hypothesis testing. Therefore, this study examined the profitability and resource use efficiency of cassava-based farmers in Ondo state. Descriptive statistics, simple budgetary techniques and Cobb Douglas production function were used to analyze the primary data. The results shows that majorities of the respondents were male (75%), smallholder farmers (81.50%) with less than 5ha, with a mean age of 49.4 years. The study also found that cassava production was profitable with a gross margin of ₦48,379.85 per hectare. The partial elasticity of cassava cuttings, labour and farm machinery were positive and significantly influenced the total output. labour and herbicide application were over utilized. The return to scale for cassava production was 1.505 implying increasing return to scale. Hence, the need to improve the capacity building of cassava-based farmers on effective and efficient utilization of herbicides and labour inputs is imperative. Keywords: Cassava-based, Profitability, Gross Margin, Cobb-Douglas and Resource use