The cost justification of a new cassava production technology could open the alley for quick adoption by cassava farmers and give extra motivation that will attract new farmers. Soil solarization is a promising cassava production technology that may need extra justification if a widespread adoption is to be achieved. A field trial was carried out during the 2019 and 2020 early cropping seasons to evaluate the cost implications of plant density and soil solarization durations on cassava production. The experiment was a factorial combination of three cassava densities: 17,778 plants ha-1 (0.75 m x 0.75 m), 13,333 plants ha-1 (0.75 m x 1 m) and 10,000 plants ha-1 (1 m x 1 m) and four pre-planting soil solarization durations (0, 4, 7 and 10 weeks), laid out in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. To analyze the cost implication of the technology, the production cost, total revenue, net returns, benefit/cost ratio and percentage net returns of each treatment were computed and tabulated. Results showed that the percentage net returns increased as cassava density increased from 10,000 stands/ha to 17,778 stands/ha. Similarly, percentage net returns increased as soil solarization duration increased from 0 to 10 weeks. The lowest percentage net returns of 29.39 % was obtained in 2019 from the unsolarized plot integrated with a lower cassava density of 10,000 stands/ha, while the highest percentage net return of 72.85 % was obtained in 2019 from the plot treated with a longer soil solarization duration of 10 weeks integrated with a higher cassava density of 17,778 stands/ha and could therefore be recommended for cost effective and environmental friendly cassava production method in the tropics.
Key words: Cassava production; Crop density, Production Cost; Percentage net returns; Soil solarization
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