THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS AFFECTING THE OUTPUT OF CASSAVA PRODUCTION AMONG SMALLHOLDER FARMERS IN EKITI SOUTH WEST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, EKITI STATE

ABSTRACT This research was carried out to examine the socio economic factors affecting output of cassava production among smallholder farmers in Ekiti South West Local government Area of Ekiti state, Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to randomly select 135 respondents for this study. Utilizing a well structured questionnaire and interview which entails open and close ended questions to extract data on various objectives of the study. Descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage was used to achieve objective I,IV and multiple linear regression was used to achieve objective III. Findings reveal that majority (66.2%)of the cassava farmers are above 41years of age, 63% of the cassava farmers are male, Majority 71.7% of the respondents are married. With an average of 4 persons per household, 45% had primary education with 40.8% having farm size between 4-6 hectares. Furthermore 91 cassava farmers representing 70% of the total respondents had an output of between 1-4tons, Also 33% of the respondents generated an income less than N251,000 - N500,000 per annum. The result of multiple regression analysis employed at 95% confidence interval to show the socio economic factors influencing income generated from cassava production in the study area. The regression analysis shows that farm size (β = 0.40, t = 4.29, p