The Efficiency of Innovation Uptake among Cocoa Farmers in Ondo State.

Abstract

The study analyzed the efficiency of innovation uptake among cocoa farmers in Ondo State from a sample of 120 randomly selected cocoa farmers from two Local Government Areas of Ondo State. The budgeting technique was used to estimate adopters and non-adopters net farm income. Adopters of disseminated cocoa technologies made NGN 65,180.28 profit more than non-adopters. Stochastic Frontier Production Function (SFPF) was used to analyze the technical efficiency of cocoa farmers. The estimated technical efficiency of the cocoa farmers ranged from 2.0% to 82.0%, with a mean technical efficiency of 41%, indicating that farmers operated sub-optimally, and there was a 59% allowance for improving technical efficiency. The study further observed that age, educational status, membership of farmer's organization, household size, and adoption status were significant determinants of technical efficiency since these variables were positively and significantly associated with technical efficiency. It was therefore recommended that farmers should be encouraged to join farmer's organizations, there is a need for government and other stakeholders to invest in extension services in sensitizing cocoa farmers of new innovations, and the level of literacy of the farmers should be looked into when formulating policies as it increases farmers' technical efficiency.