scholarly journals Technical efficiency of smallholder farmers in red pepper production in North Gondar zone Amhara regional state, Ethiopia

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tadie Mirie Abate ◽  
Abebe Birara Dessie ◽  
Taye Melese Mekie
Author(s):  
Getachew Wollie

This study analyzed the technical efficiency of barley production by smallholder farmers in Meket district, Amhara National Regional State, Ethiopia. A cross sectional data from a sample of 123 barley producers during the 2016/17 production season was collected by applying two stage random sampling. To address the objective of the study, both descriptive statistics and econometric models were used to analyze the data.  The trans-log functional form of the production function simultaneously with single stage estimation approach was used to estimate the production of barley output and technical inefficiency factors. The estimated stochastic production frontier model indicated that input variables such as fertilizer, human labor and oxen power were the significant variables to increase the quantity of barley output while, barley seed had a negative effect. The estimated mean levels of technical efficiency of the sample farmers were about 70.9% which revealed that, presence of a room to increase their technical efficiency level on average by 29.1% with the existing resources. The discrepancy ratio gamma indicated that 63% of the total variation from the frontier comes due to technical inefficiency while, the remaining 37% comes due to factors outside the control of farmers. Among the hypothesized factors that affect technical inefficiency; education level, extension contact and number of barley plots significantly and negatively affected technical inefficiency score. Besides, practice of crop rotation, distance of residence from the nearest main market, total expenditure and soil fertility was found to have a positive and significant effect. Hence, emphasis should be given to decrease the inefficiency level of those more inefficient farm households via experience sharing among the farmers and usage of improved or certified barley seed. Besides to this, policies and strategies of the government should be directed towards increasing farmers’ education, improve the system of input distributions and institutional facilities.


Author(s):  
Getachew Wollie

This study analyzed the technical efficiency of barley production by smallholder farmers in Meket district, Amhara National Regional State, Ethiopia. A cross sectional data from a sample of 123 barley producers during the 2016/17 production season was collected by applying two stage random sampling. To address the objective of the study, both descriptive statistics and econometric models were used to analyze the data.  The trans-log functional form of the production function simultaneously with single stage estimation approach was used to estimate the production of barley output and technical inefficiency factors. The estimated stochastic production frontier model indicated that input variables such as fertilizer, human labor and oxen power were the significant variables to increase the quantity of barley output while, barley seed had a negative effect. The estimated mean levels of technical efficiency of the sample farmers were about 70.9% which revealed that, presence of a room to increase their technical efficiency level on average by 29.1% with the existing resources. The discrepancy ratio gamma indicated that 63% of the total variation from the frontier comes due to technical inefficiency while, the remaining 37% comes due to factors outside the control of farmers. Among the hypothesized factors that affect technical inefficiency; education level, extension contact and number of barley plots significantly and negatively affected technical inefficiency score. Besides, practice of crop rotation, distance of residence from the nearest main market, total expenditure and soil fertility was found to have a positive and significant effect. Hence, emphasis should be given to decrease the inefficiency level of those more inefficient farm households via experience sharing among the farmers and usage of improved or certified barley seed. Besides to this, policies and strategies of the government should be directed towards increasing farmers’ education, improve the system of input distributions and institutional facilities.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tigabu Dagnew Koye ◽  
Abebe Dagnew Koye ◽  
Taye Melese Mekie

Abstract Ethiopia is a country with a total population of more than 110 million, of which about 80% of the total population is engaged in subsistence farming in rural areas. Although agricultural sector plays a great role in Ethiopian economy, it is characterized by low productivity due to technological and socioeconomic factors. Improving smallholder irrigated tomato production, and productivity, would contribute to enhancing food security and alleviating poverty. Therefore, this study was investigated to fill this gap with the aim of analyzing technical efficiency of irrigated tomato production and its determinant factors in North Gondar Zone, Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia. Primary data were collected from 160 farmers’ selected using multistage sampling procedure and analyzed using descriptive statistics, a parametric stochastic frontier production function models. The stochastic frontier and Cobb-Douglas functional form with a one-step approach was employed to analyze efficiency and factors affecting efficiency in irrigated tomato production. The estimated gamma parameters indicated that 80% of the total variation in tomato output was due to technical inefficiency. The means technical efficiency was found 55%, and about 6,907.32 kg of tomato output per hectare was lost due to inefficiency factors implying there is a room for improvement in technical efficiency by 43% with the present technology. The Stochastic Production Frontier (SPF) result revealed that ODE, DAP and plot size at 1% and labor at 10% probability level significantly influencing tomato production. The socio-economic variables that exercised important role for variations in technical efficiency positively were the level of education, TLU and watering in morning, and in contrast age, off farm, watering frequency and training for marketing were found to increase inefficiency significantly among farm households. To get better farmers' efficiency in the production of irrigated tomato a continuous marketing training should be established and strengthening the available farmers training center (FTC) to improve farm productivity. The government and any concerned bodies should be build irrigation canals and other alternatives so as to reduce watering frequency. There should be timely and sufficient supply of DAP to improve farmers’ efficiency in production of tomato.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 246
Author(s):  
Markose Chekol Zewdie ◽  
Michele Moretti ◽  
Daregot Berihun Tenessa ◽  
Zemen Ayalew Ayele ◽  
Jan Nyssen ◽  
...  

In the past decade, to improve crop production and productivity, Ethiopia has embarked on an ambitious irrigation farming expansion program and has introduced new large- and small-scale irrigation initiatives. However, in Ethiopia, poverty remains a challenge, and crop productivity per unit area of land is very low. Literature on the technical efficiency (TE) of large-scale and small-scale irrigation user farmers as compared to the non-user farmers in Ethiopia is also limited. Investigating smallholder farmers’ TE level and its principal determinants is very important to increase crop production and productivity and to improve smallholder farmers’ livelihood and food security. Using 1026 household-level cross-section data, this study adopts a technology flexible stochastic frontier approach to examine agricultural TE of large-scale irrigation users, small-scale irrigation users and non-user farmers in Ethiopia. The results indicate that, due to poor extension services and old-style agronomic practices, the mean TE of farmers is very low (44.33%), implying that there is a wider room for increasing crop production in the study areas through increasing the TE of smallholder farmers without additional investment in novel agricultural technologies. Results also show that large-scale irrigation user farmers (21.05%) are less technically efficient than small-scale irrigation user farmers (60.29%). However, improving irrigation infrastructure shifts the frontier up and has a positive impact on smallholder farmers’ output.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4235
Author(s):  
Silvia Saravia-Matus ◽  
T. S. Amjath-Babu ◽  
Sreejith Aravindakshan ◽  
Stefan Sieber ◽  
Jimmy A. Saravia ◽  
...  

By developing meta-frontier efficiency and structural equation models, the paper examines whether farm economic viability is positively associated with technical efficiency in a highly food insecure context, such as that of rural Sierra Leone. The findings show that technical efficiency can be a sufficient but not necessary condition in determining economic viability of smallholder farming. It is possible to breach reproductive thresholds at the cost of reduced technical efficiency, when the crop diversification strategy of smallholders includes market-oriented high-value crops. This calls for a dual policy approach that addresses farmers’ internal needs for self-consumption (increasing efficiency of food crop production) while encouraging market-oriented cash crop production (diversification assisted through the reduction of associated transaction costs and the establishment of accessible commercialization channels of export related crops and/or high-value crops). The work also calls out for a move-up or move-out strategy for small holders to create viable farming systems in developing world.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Ahado ◽  
Jiří Hejkrlík ◽  
Anudari Enkhtur ◽  
Tserendavaa Tseren ◽  
Tomáš Ratinger

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of agricultural cooperative membership on potato production and technical efficiency.Design/methodology/approachA combination of propensity score matching technique and sample selection stochastic frontier framework that addresses potential selection bias due to observable and unobservable attributes is used to estimate the effect of participation between cooperative members and non-members. Using a stochastic meta-frontier approach, the technical efficiency of farmers was estimated and compared.FindingsThe empirical results show that the effect of participation in agricultural cooperatives is associated with increased yield and technical efficiency. A comparison of group-specific frontiers indicates that cooperative members perform better than non-members. Cooperative membership decisions is significantly associated with household and farm characteristics (e.g. education, participation in off-farm work, total farmland, distance to market and geographic location).Practical implicationsThe findings of this study demonstrate that cooperative organisations can be an important tool to enhance the productivity and efficiency of smallholder farmers. Successful cooperative models together with training programs designed to enlighten farmers on the importance and tangible benefits of collective action should be used to enlarge participation in cooperative organisations. In addition, governments and development agencies should implement targeted investment and capacity building programs related to irrigation management, gender-sensitive awareness and development of the internal institutional mechanisms in cooperatives for the transfer of knowledge and mutual learning so that all members benefit from cooperatives.Originality/valueDespite the pervasive evidence of the impact of cooperatives on productivity and technical efficiency in the Asian region, this study is probably the first attempt in the crop sector in Mongolia. It provides a rigorous empirical analysis of the impact of agricultural cooperative membership on potato production and technical efficiency through a counterfactual design.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Paul Jr. Tabe-Ojong ◽  
Ernest L. Molua

Agriculture is the mainstay of Cameroon’s economy as it serves the purposes of food, livelihood and employment. Nevertheless, the country’s agriculture is plagued by low productivity and inefficiency in production. One of the main reasons for low productivity is the inability of farmers to fully exploit available technologies and production techniques. An important research question that comes to mind is, what are the major factors that hinder the technical efficiency of smallholder farmers? This study thus aimed to determine the level of technical efficiency in the production of tomato in smallholder farms, relying on primary data collected using a structured survey instrument administered to 80 tomato farmers in the Buea municipality of Cameroon. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and a stochastic frontier analysis method in the Cobb-Douglas production function. The STATA.14 software was used to obtain both stochastic frontier estimates and the determinants of technical efficiency. The results indicate that farmers are not fully technically efficient with a mean technical efficiency score of 0.68 with one farmer operating on the frontier. The study also revealed that most of the farmers irrespective of the size of the holdings have shown technical inefficiency problems. The older farmers were observed with the best measures of technical efficiency. Education, age and the adoption and practice of agronomic techniques had a positive and significant influence on technical efficiency while the nearest distance to the extension agent had a rather negative influence on technical efficiency. The input-output relationship showed that the area of tomato cultivation and the quantity of improved seed used were positive and significantly related to output at the 5% level of probability. As a result, it is recommended that farmers should increase their farm size, use of improved seeds and the adoption and practice of novel techniques in production. More emphasis should be placed on extension agents as they have a significant role to play in terms of improving and augmenting farmers’ education and information base through on farm demonstrations and result oriented workshops as all this will ensure increased production and productivity thereby increasing technical efficiency and achieving food self-sufficiency.


Agro Ekonomi ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 196
Author(s):  
Armina Fariani ◽  
Jamhari Jamhari ◽  
Any Suryantini

This study aims to (1) identify the factors affecting the production of oil palm cultivation business by the smallholders and (2) identify the technical level as well as factors influencing business inefficiency of oil palm cultivation by the smallholders  in Air Sugihan Sub District of Ogan Komering Ilir Regency, South Sumatera Province.  This research uses the  basic method of analytical descriptive method.  The data were collected by way of observation and direct interviews in the field guided by a questionnaire.  The research location was determined purposively, that is in Pangkalan Damai Village, Air Sugihan Sub-district, Ogan Komering Ilir Municipality, South Sumatera Province. Sampling was conducted using non probabilistic sampling method (purposive sampling).  The research investigated 79 smallholder farmers of oil palm cultivation in Pangkalan Damai village of Air Sugihan Sub-district, Ogan Komering Ilir Municipality, South Sumatera Province.  On the basis of the analysis, it is revealed  that (1) the factors affecting the increase of palm production were labor, land area, TSP fertilizer, NPK fertilizer, organic fertilizer, herbicides and insecticides which also have an effect on decreasing  palm production. (2) Palm plantation business was technically efficient with the average technical level of smallholder palm farmers in Air Sugihan Sub-district of Ogan Komering Ilir Municipality of 0.86090.  Factors that decrease the technical inefficiency in smallholder palm cultivation in Air Sugihan Sub-district of Ogan Komering Ilir Regency were farmers’ education level.  This information can be used by the goverment to improve technical efficiency through education in the form of counseling and training to increase production.


Heliyon ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. e04356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gebrehiwot Weldegebrial Gebru ◽  
Hyacinth Ementa Ichoku ◽  
Philip Ogbonnia Phil-Eze

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