scholarly journals Production Efficiency of Sorghum: The Case of Smallholder Farmers in Kafta-Humera District Tigray Ethiopia

Author(s):  
Tewoderos Meleaku ◽  
Degye Goshu ◽  
Bosena Tegegne

Efficiency is an important factor for increasing productivity which leads to increase market output to achieve the goal of food security. In economics where resources are scarce and opportunities to use new technologies are limited, increasing efficiency remains the most reasonable means to raise productivity without necessarily developing new technologies or increasing the resource base. So, this study aimed to investigate level of production efficiency, factors affecting production inefficiency of sorghum small holder farmers in Kafta-humera district of Tigray Ethiopia. A two stage sampling technique was used to select 289 sample farmers who were interviewed using a semi- structured questionnaire to obtain data pertaining to sorghum production during the year 2016/2017.Stochastic production frontier model was used to identify production efficiency levels, where as Tobit models was used to estimate factors affecting production efficiency levels. Accordingly, the mean technical, allocative and economic efficiencies were 78.01%, 65.21% and 39.91% respectively. This implies that output can be increased by 21.99% or cost can be reduced by 34.79% with the existing level of technology and resources. Input variables such as land, labor, tractor plow power, chemicals, DAP and Urea fertilizers positively affects production of sorghum. The discrepancy ratio (γ) implied that about 91.91% of the variation in sorghum production was attributed to technical inefficiency effects. Tobit model revealed that age, education, non-farm income, credit, extension service and training positively and significantly affected technical efficiency while age square and total livestock holding had negatively and significantly affected. Additionally, age square, education and frequency of farm visit positively and significantly affected allocative efficiency, while age, non-farm income, credit and extension contact have a negative and significant affect. Economic efficiency was positively and significantly affected by age, education, non-farm income, credit, extension contact and frequencies of farm visit but negatively affected by age square. These indicate that there is a room to increase in production efficiency of sorghum in the study area. Therefore, government authorities and other concerned bodies should take into consideration the above mentioned demographic, socioeconomic and institutional factors to increase efficiency of sorghum.

2021 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 426-433
Author(s):  
Luke ADEBISI ◽  
Oluwaremilekun ADEBISI ◽  
Marvellous OWOLABI ◽  
Edet HENSHAW ◽  
Olaide ASIYANBI

The study assessed the effect of contract farming on broiler production in Osun State, Nigeria. 120 farmers comprising of broiler farmers participating and not participating in contract farming were selected using multistage sampling technique. Information was elicited from the farmers with the aid of a structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Stochastic Production Frontier and Ordinary least square regression model. The findings of this study revealed that majority (75%) of the farmers rated the activities of contracting farming to be good and favorable, as the contract farmers earn more from broiler production than their counterparts. Average technical efficiency of the contract and non contract farmers were 0.8209 and 0.6803, respectively. The results also revealed that years of experience in broiler production, education of farmer, off-farm income, membership in farmers association, access to credit, access to veterinary services and participation in contract farming significantly affected technical efficiency of broiler farmers in the study area. Therefore, the study recommends that there should be increase in the awareness of the benefits associated with contract farming in agrarian communities, so that more farmers are encouraged to participate, as this will improve their production efficiency.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 259-273
Author(s):  
Solomon T. Folorunso ◽  
T. Omosebi ◽  
D. A. Agbonika

The study compared the allocative efficiency and profitability of poultry-egg farmers in Jos metropolis of Plateau State, Nigeria, across different scales. To select 143 respondents, a two-stage sampling technique was used.   Using well-structured questionnaire and interview schedules, primary data on socioeconomic variables were collected. Collected data were analyzed using budgetary technique and stochastic production frontier model. Result of allocative efficiency showed the following: The mean allocative efficiency of the small, medium and large scales was 0.68, 0.12 and 0.11 respectively; the minimum allocative efficiency for small, medium and large scales was 0.30, 0.10 and 0.10 respectively. The maximum allocative efficiency was 0.59, 0.18 and 0.11 respectively for small, medium and large scale farmers. The profitability result indicated that egg production for small, medium and large-scale farms was profitable in the study area with N675, 671.79, N4, 897,236.09 and N16, 327,633.66 per farmer. The rate of return on investment per bird was found to be 19.51%, 31.21% and 83.13% respectively for small, medium and large farm sizes. For small, medium and large-scale farmers respectively, the capital turnover per bird was N 1.20, N1.31 and N1.83. Also, the profitability indices for the small, medium and large scales are N0.16, N0.24 and N0.45. The study recommends that; Farmers should be advised to increase production from small scale to large scale through policies that will promote such, special intervention is needed from the government at all levels through farmers’ cooperatives in the area of inputs subsidy, price efficiency of the farmers could


2013 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abu Zafar Mahmudul Haq

The impact of extension contact on crop income is examined with a view to evaluating the agricultural extension in Bangladesh. The scope of the study was ten villages of Gazipur district. The objectives of the study are to i) determine the factors influencing the benefit of extension services in terms of farm income, ii) determine the factors affecting the extension contact of farmers, and iii) suggest some policy guidelines to improve the extension services in Bangladesh. The sample of the study consists of 1000 farmers. Data came from field survey and multistage random sampling technique was used in order to collect data. The results indicated that the impact of extension contact coefficient on crop income is positive and significant. Evidence shows that the influence of extension contact coefficient is strongly positive and significant in the comparatively nearer villages to upazila headquarters, while this effect is weaker for those villages, which are comparatively away from upazila headquarters. It is found that many farmers did not receive extension contact and the effect of extension contact is weak on crop income compared to other factors such as irrigation and chemical fertilizer. It is assumed that there was enough scope to increase extension contact in the study areas. Some determinants of extension contact were also examined. The study concludes that agricultural extension is necessary to increase among the farmers. Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 38(2): 321-334, June 2013 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjar.v38i2.15893


Author(s):  
Tewoderos Meleaku ◽  
Degye Goshu ◽  
Bosena Tegegne

Markets are important for economic growth and development of a given country to ensure sustainable supply of food. Failure of market leads to failure of adoption of new technology which is necessary for increasing productivity. Sorghum has been considered as a strategic crop by the Ethiopian government aiming at enhancing food security and essential source of income for farmers as whole economic benefits to the country. Smallholder’s farmers producing about 95 percent of the national agricultural production increasing market participation among smallholder farmers have a big opportunity to boost their living standards. The objective of this study was analyzing factors determining smallholder sorghum farmer decision to participate in output market and level of marketed output smallholder farmers in Kafta-Humera district of Tigeray Ethiopia. A two stage sampling technique was used to select 289 sample farmers who were interviewed using a semi- structured questionnaire to obtain data pertaining to sorghum production during the year 2016/2017. Descriptive and Tobit regression analyses were used to determine the key factors that influence household participation in the market in terms of volumes of product sales.  The study identified that quantity of sorghum supplied to the market was positively affected by credit, extension contact, training, sorghum farm size, current price of sorghum and education, while family size and lagged price of sesame negatively affected. These indicate that there is a room to increase in supply and intensity of sorghum in the study area. Therefore, government authorities and other concerned bodies should take into consideration the mentioned demographic, socioeconomic and institutional factors to increase supply of sorghum to the market in study area.


2016 ◽  
Vol 62 (No. 4) ◽  
pp. 181-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.B. Shrestha ◽  
W.-Ch. Huang ◽  
S. Gautam ◽  
T.G. Johnson

Poverty and hunger reduction are intertwined challenges and enduring issues in the world, particularly in developing countries. Improvement in the efficiency in vegetable farming helps the farmers increase the per capita income, reduce poverty and eventually improve the livelihood of smallholder farmers. This paper evaluates economic efficiency of vegetable farms in Nepal using a non-parametric data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach. The results show evidence to suggest that vegetable farms in Nepal have a considerable potential for improving the vegetable production efficiency with a greater access to improved seed, agricultural credit, and training and extension services. Some policies options with regard to the vegetable production technology, and support services for farmers in general and women farmers in particular, are suggested to increase the farm efficiency. While some of these support services are currently available, we suggest that a more focus be given to creating the improved market access, to the women focused extension, and to training packages for the sustainable production. These support services can lead to increases in the farm income and to reduce poverty.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Subir Bairagi ◽  
Khondoker Abdul Mottaleb

PurposeFarmer organizations (FOs) can elevate many of the production- and marketing-related challenges by ensuring access to technology, farming information and loan for inputs and mechanization. This study assesses the major factors that affect the participation in FOs by the smallholder rice farmers in Bangladesh and evaluates the impacts of the participation on rice yield and production efficiency.Design/methodology/approachThe present study used primary data collected from 1,000 smallholder rice farmers in northwest Bangladesh, consisting of 250 farmers those participated in an organization. This study utilized a sample selection stochastic production frontier (SPF) method, a combination of the conventional SPF and the Heckman's sample selection model, to control for biases stemming from observed and unobserved attributes.FindingsThis study demonstrates that participation in an organization is significantly affected by smallholder rice farmers' education, occupation, family size, household income, land ownership and the location where they reside. At the same time, the participation status affects the productivity of smallholder farmers. Findings indicate that farmers who participated in an organization had higher rice yield (11% more) and were technically more efficient (1.4 percentage points higher) compared to farmers who did not participate.Research limitations/implicationsSince this study was carried out with representative sampled farmers from northwest Bangladesh, the findings may not represent all farmers' perceptions of FOs in the country.Originality/valueEven though more than 200,000 FOs are currently in operation, knowledge regarding the effectiveness of Bangladesh's FOs is limited. Notably, this study used a relatively new method, sample selection SPF model, to investigate the impact of FOs on the production efficiency of smallholder rice farmers in northwest Bangladesh. Therefore, this study contributes to the literature in elucidating the factors affecting participation in FOs and its impact on rice yield and efficiency. Since FOs have been somewhat ineffective in their role as service providers in Bangladesh, this study’s results will guide policymakers to intervene more successfully regarding the changes needed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 153
Author(s):  
Hamidullah Elham ◽  
Jiajun Zhou ◽  
Mouhamadou Foula Diallo ◽  
Shakeel Ahmad ◽  
De Zhou

Since war started at the end of 2001, the economy was severely devasted in Afghanistan, especially for the agriculture sector. Maize is the third most important cereal crop in Afghanistan, but the productivity of maize has a declining trend which may be caused by low efficiency of maize farmers nowadays. This study examines the production efficiency of maize producers and its important factors with the cross-sectional data form a multi-stage sampling survey of 250 maize producers in Helmand province in 2019. With the adoption of stochastic production frontier (SPF) model and production cost function, the paper gets the estimations of the average technical efficiency (0.737), allocative efficiency (0.65) and economic efficiency (0.568). The inputs, including land, labor, seed, fertilizer and pesticide/weedicides, have significant impacts on maize production and most of the farms exhibit an increasing return to scales. In addition, Tobit regression was applied to identify the influential factors of the production efficiencies for maize producers and the results indicate that education, family size, farm size, farming experience, contact to extension services and access to credit have significantly influence on the efficiency level. Finally, the study suggests that government should take some initiatives, such as extending the agricultural extension service, ensuring supply of high quality seeds and sufficient fertilizer with affordable prices and economical provision of mobile internet facility in remote areas, which will enhance the productivity and efficiency of the farmers and ultimately boost up their economic welfare and livelihood.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis Akabo Asodina ◽  
Faizal Adams ◽  
Fred Nimoh ◽  
Bright Owusu Asante ◽  
Amos Mensah

Abstract The economic importance of soybean towards poverty alleviation and food security is gaining wider popularity and common acceptance among smallholder farmers in sub-Sahara Africa, especially in Ghana. Commercial soybean cultivation is relatively new in Ghana; hence it has recently benefited from several productivities enhancing innovation/technologies. However, despite these efforts, productivity has remained low. This paper investigates factors affecting production efficiency among commercial soybean farmers, across the three commercial districts of the Upper West region of Ghana. A cross-sectional data collected from 271 soybean farmers were used to investigate technical efficiency of soybean production. The overall mean technical efficiency estimate is 59% with a scale elasticity of 0.89-indicating a huge scope for efficiency improvement. The result shows that, factors affecting technical efficiency are dependent on the farmer’s socioeconomic status. With the existing technology and production recourses, soybean farmers can improve their current levels of soybean production by 41% through the adoption of best production practices.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1(S)) ◽  
pp. 10-18
Author(s):  
Windinkonté SEOGO ◽  
W. Jean-Pierre SAWADOGO

Millet is the basic cereal crop which contributes to rural households’ food security in the Sahel region of Burkina Faso. This study assesses the technical efficiency and its determinants of millet farmers in this region. A stochastic frontier approach is followed to analyze data collected on 106 households randomly selected in 2017. The mean technical efficiency is estimated at 71.23% implying that millet production may be increased by 28.77% with the same resources used by farmers. The results show that formal education, off farm income, breeding, and access to credit are the main factors affecting the production efficiency. The study recommends decisions makers to take appropriate measures regarding these factors, to enhance millet productivity in the Sahel region.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Nsikak-Abasi Etim ◽  
Dorothy Thompson

Youths are successor farming generation and therefore the future of food security. At present, they constitute about 60% of Nigeria’s population and have over the years contributed significantly to national development. Unfortunately, the present environment makes it  difficult to explore their full potentials in  production through participation in agriculture. The ageing smallholder farmers are less likely to increase capacity needed to sustainably expand agricultural production. There is therefore a pressing need to engage the youth in ways that they can see a promising future in agriculture as well as influence them to build capacity through effective involvement in agricultural production. Several factors however, have continued to hinder capacity building and effective  participation of youths in vegetable farming. An empirical study was conducted to estimate the factors affecting the willingness  of youth to  participate in small scale waterleaf production. The representative waterleaf producers were selected using the multi stage sampling procedures.With the aid of questionnaire, primary data were obtained from 100 farmers. Univariate probit regression model was used to analyze the data. Results of analysis indicated that the most critical factors affecting the participation of youths in waterleaf production were age, educational qualification, size of household members, and farm income. Results indicated that youths who have acquired some form of education were more willing to be involved in waterleaf production. Findings further indicated that youth in families with higher income from farming activities were more willing to participate in waterleaf production.


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