31 Farm Resource Technical Efficiencies’ Determinants in Rural Cassava Farms in Kogi State, Nigeria Anthony O. Onoja ∗ and A. I. Achike ∗∗ Abstract This study was designed to determine the technical efficiencies of farm resource in rural farms within Nigeria’s second largest producer of cassava, Kogi State. A total of 174 cassava farmers from two agricultural zones of the state were sampled. Analysis of questionnaire items was done using a Cobb-Douglas function and Chow’s Break-Point test. The farm inefficiencies’ levels and sources were determined using stochastic frontier model using Frontier 4.1 software. Farm credit, farm size, chemical fertiliser quantity applied, labour and seedlings planted were significant determinants at 0.05 per cent and 0.01 levels. An increasing return to scale (4.855) was confirmed among the farms while the overall technical efficiencies were high (81%). A statistically significant variation existed in productivity levels of the two zones studied. 1.0 Introduction Cassava belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae. Two varieties of the cassava are of economic value: the bitter, or poisonous (Manihot esculenta); and the sweet, or non- poisonous (Manihot dulcis). (Microsoft Encarta Premium 2009). Cassava is the chief source of tapioca and ‘garri’; its roots are eaten as food, fed to stock, or used in the manufacture of starch and glucose. The leaves are used as vegetables and source of vitamins, mineral and proteins (Alabi & Alabi 2002). In Sub-Saharan Africa, the per capita per kg/year consumption of Cassava is 103, which is far higher than maize (40), banana/plantain (28), sorghum (23), milk (27), meat (11), yam (28) and millet (17) in the same region (IITA 2004a). Nigerian cassava production is by far the largest in the world; a third more than production in Brazil and almost double of the production of Indonesia and Thailand; its cassava transformation is the most advanced in Africa (IFAD 2004). The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome (FAO 2004a) estimated 2002 cassava production in Nigeria to be approximately 34 million tonnes. ∗ Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Email: tonyojonimi@gmail.com ∗∗ Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Asia-Pacific Journal of Rural Development Vol. XX, No. 2, December 2010