scholarly journals Effects of climate adaptation on technical efficiency of maize production in Northern Ghana

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
William Adzawla ◽  
Hamdiyah Alhassan
Keyword(s):  
Technical Efficiency ◽  
Crop Rotation ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Stochastic Frontier ◽  
Adaptation Strategies ◽  
Farm Size ◽  
Northern Ghana ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Sustainable Food Production

AbstractClimate adaptation is an essential strategy for responding to climate change at local levels and required for sustainable food production to meet the growing food demand. In this light, this study analyzed the effects of climate adaptation strategies on technical efficiency of maize farmers in Northern Ghana. This involved a total of 619 maize farmers that were selected through a multistage sampling procedure. A Cobb-Douglas stochastic frontier was fitted to the data. From the result, the major climate adaptation strategies adopted by the farmers include row planting, changing planting date, mixed farming, refilling, and intercropping. The frontier result shows that while climate adaptation significantly leads to higher maize outputs, only crop rotation and row planting significantly improve technical efficiency of maize farmers. Other factors that significantly influence maize output are farm size, labor, seed, and chemicals. The study concludes that climate adaptation, particularly, crop rotation and row planting, remains essential adaptation strategies for sustainable food production in the region. However, further understanding of mechanisms through which majority of the climate adaptation strategies significantly reduce technical efficiency is required.

scholarly journals Actions on sustainable food production and consumption for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. eabc8259
Author(s):  
Izabela Delabre ◽  
Lily O. Rodriguez ◽  
Joanna Miller Smallwood ◽  
Jörn P. W. Scharlemann ◽  
Joseph Alcamo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Production ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Transformative Change ◽  
Political Commitment ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Sustainable Food Production ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Barriers And Opportunities ◽  
Sustainability Standards

Current food production and consumption trends are inconsistent with the Convention on Biological Diversity’s 2050 vision of living in harmony with nature. Here, we examine how, and under what conditions, the post-2020 biodiversity framework can support transformative change in food systems. Our analysis of actions proposed in four science-policy fora reveals that subsidy reform, valuation, food waste reduction, sustainability standards, life cycle assessments, sustainable diets, mainstreaming biodiversity, and strengthening governance can support more sustainable food production and consumption. By considering barriers and opportunities of implementing these actions in Peru and the United Kingdom, we derive potential targets and indicators for the post-2020 biodiversity framework. For targets to support transformation, genuine political commitment, accountability and compliance, and wider enabling conditions and actions by diverse agents are needed to shift food systems onto a sustainable path.

scholarly journals Technical Efficiency of Smallholder Tomato Production in Semi-Urban Farms in Cameroon: A Stochastic Frontier Production Approach

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Paul Jr. Tabe-Ojong ◽  
Ernest L. Molua
Keyword(s):  
Technical Efficiency ◽  
Stochastic Frontier Analysis ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Stochastic Frontier ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Farm Size ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Tomato Production ◽  
Frontier Analysis

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.

scholarly journals Technical Efficiency and Small Scale Maize Producers in Mwanza Region: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mukole Kongolo
Keyword(s):  
Technical Efficiency ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Stochastic Frontier Analysis ◽  
Stochastic Frontier ◽  
Likelihood Estimation ◽  
Estimation Procedure ◽  
Farm Size ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Maize Production ◽  
Frontier Analysis

This study measured technical efficiency and its determinants in maize production by small-scale producers in Mwanza region, using a stochastic frontier production function approach. A randomly selected sample of participants in the two districts was used. The Maximum Likelihood estimation procedure was followed to obtain the determinants of technical efficiency and technical efficiency levels of small-scale maize producers. The minimum and maximum values of technical efficiency were between 20% and 91%, indicating that the least practices of specific producer operates at a minimum level of 20%, while the best practice producers  operate  at 91% technical efficiency  level respectively. The summary results of the mean technical efficiency was 63%. The main determinants of technical efficiency were labour, farm size, producer’s experience, producer’s age, family size which were all positive and statistically significant. The findings suggest that the average efficiency of small-scale maize producers could be improved by 37% through better use of existing resources and technology. These findings highlight the need for action by government to assist small-scale maize producers improve efficiency.

scholarly journals Technical Efficiency Assessment of Dairy Farm in the South-west Region of Bangladesh

2020 ◽  
pp. 21-28
Author(s):  
Fariha Farjana ◽  
Afia Khatun
Keyword(s):  
Technical Efficiency ◽  
Stochastic Frontier ◽  
Percent Level ◽  
Dairy Farms ◽  
Farm Size ◽  
The South ◽  
Average Output ◽  
West Region ◽  
South West ◽  
South West Region

The paper concentrates on the measurement of the total factor productivity of dairy farms in the south-west region of Bangladesh. The study used stochastic frontier approach for analyzing the technical efficiency of the dairy farms. Here, seventy dairy farms are considered as a sample. The data reveals that the number of labor and the quantity of food are statistically significant at a 1 percent level of significance.The data also manifests that numerous farm-specific characteristics, i.e. farm size, farmer’s age, and amount of credit are statistically significant at 1 percent, 10 percent, and 10 percent respectively. The range of technical efficiency for the farms varies from 26 percent (minimum) to 95 percent (maximum) where the mean value is 68 percent for the dairy farms of the south-west region. This implies that an average output of milk production falls 32 percent short of maximum possible level. Hence, there is scope of improvement in this sector. Therefore, to improve the farm productivity government should provide proper training, and medical treatment facilities for the farms so that the animals become healthy. If it is possible to do so then the farm level production frontier will shift upward.

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