Kudivo, B.K.2023-10-062023-10-062021-11http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh:8080/handle/123456789/40341MPhil. AgribusinessThe primary objective of this thesis is to assess the profit efficiency of cassava production in the Eastern and Brong Ahafo regions of Ghana. The study used farm level data to estimate the cost and return levels of farmers, profit efficiency and its determinants, and ranked major constraints facing the farmers. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to collect cross-sectional data from 300 cassava farmers in four districts in the two regions during the period of 2017 to 2018 production year. The Net Farm Income (NFI), Return on Investment (ROI) and profit efficiency were estimated for the farmers, the stochastic frontier profit function and farm specific inefficiency models were estimated using the FRONTIER 4.1 while the Kendall’s Coefficient of Concordance was used to the rank famers’ constraints. A Net Farm Income (NFI) value of GHS 4457.24 with a profit margin of 75% was realized for farmers in the study area. About 12% returns are made on the farmer’s capital investment. Results from the t-test showed that even though cost in the two regions differ, profits are not significantly different. Result from the frontier estimation indicates that elasticities of mean output for agrochemicals and planting materials were significant in influencing the profit of farmers. The result further shows that on the average, the cassava farmers are 86.4% profit efficient, revealing that cassava producers on average are not operating on the profit frontier. This means that cassava farmers lose 13.6% of their profits as a result of inefficiency on their part. The results further indicate that educational status of farmer, membership of farmers-based organization, age of farmer, experience, gender, and marital status of the famer are the main factors that significantly explain the variation in famers’ profit inefficiency. Lack of land for cultivation, inadequate working capital, poor market price and lack of improve planting materials are the major constraints to cassava production identified in the study area. It is therefore concluded that cassava production in the study area is very profitable though farmers not able to accrued all the associated profit due inefficiency arising from their input mix. Inadequate capital, lack of farmland, poor pricing and lack of improve planting materials are the major constraints militating against the success of cassava production in the study area. The study recommend that Government should intensify the requisite supports, policy interventions given to cassava production. This can be done by providing incentive packages for the youth who are interested in venturing into cassava production, either through the supply of inputs or initial startup capital for cassava production. Improved and high yielding cassava variety with minimum pricing should be developed by relevant research institutes and made available to farmers so as to raise the current yield of cassava per unit land area and increase the farmers’ profit. Government should introduce policies and interventions that would improve access to productive inputs (land), machinery (tractor service), infrastructure (road network) and marketing facilities should also be pursued by the government to enhance the competitiveness of cassava production and increase profit efficiency of cassava production.enCassava ProductionEasternBrong Ahafo RegionsGhanaThesis