Assessment of community driven development projects on the technical efficiency of cassava farming communities in Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Community Driven Development (CDD) is an approach to implementing local development projects that advocates for community participation in decision-making and management with a goal of using knowledge and resources to run more effective projects. This study, therefore, assesses the social infrastructure facilities of the CDD on the technical efficiency of cassava farming communities in Edo State. The data used in the study were obtained from a cross-sectional survey of cassava farmers in the state. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 245 farmers for this study. The sampled farmers consist of 245 cassava farmers from Community and Social Development Projects (CSDP) beneficiary communities. The Stochastic Frontier Production Function (SFPF) was used to analyze the data. Regression modeling result showed that farm size (b = 1.436), labour (b = 0.143) and cassava cuttings (b = 0.301) were significantly (p<0.05) and positively affecting the output of cassava among farmers in the beneficiary communities and recorded higher technical efficiency of 96.5%. Healthcare centres (d = -0.181) and water projects (d = -0.009) contributed 18.1% and 0.9% respectively to technical efficiency of the farmers. Thus, the study recommends that Healthcare centres and water projects should be extended to more farming communities as these increases the efficiency of the farmers. The CDD approach adopted by the CSDP should also be adopted by the State and Local Governments in project execution in the State because bottom – up approach of the CDD gives better access to projects.