Analysis of Policy Issues in Technical Efficiency of Small Scale Farmers Using the Stochastic Frontier Production Function: With Application to Nigerian Farmers (original) (raw)
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2008
The study quantitatively determine the impact of policy changes on technical efficiency of small scale food crop farmers in Ondo State, Nigeria, using the stochastic frontier methodology. Given the specifications of the Cobb-Douglas Stochastic frontier models, the results show that the elasticity of mean value of farm output is an increasing function of land, labour and implements. The mean value of farm output is also estimated to be an increasing function of agrochemicals and seeds. The results indicate that an increasing returns-to-scale exists among the farmers. The analysis shows a wide variation in the estimated technical efficiencies, ranging between 0.22 and 0.89. The results of simulation on policy variables show that the level of technical efficiency would significantly increase with rising level of education, farming experience and amount of credit used and decline with the age of the farmers.
Technical Efficiency of Smallholder Maize Farmers in Nigeria: The Stochastic Frontier Approach
The study examined technical efficiency of maize farmers in Kogi State, Nigeria. The objective is to determine the technical efficiency of maize production and factors responsible for technical inefficiencies in maize production in the study area. Primary data were used for the study. Data collated were analyzed using descriptive statistics, ordinary regression, and stochastic frontier model. Results from the analyses revealed that 70% of the farmers were above productive age, 87.5 are male while 62.5% have the ability to read and write. The regression analysis showed that variable inputs such as fertilizer, maize seed, chemical, labour and farm size are determinant of maize production in the study area while labour does not show any significant relationship. The mean technical efficiency was 0.758 implying that maize farmers in the study area are fairly efficient in their use of existing technologies. This means that on average smallholder maize farmers in the study area incurred about 24% loss in output due to technical inefficiency. This implies that on average output can be increased by at least 24% while utilizing existing resources and technology given the inefficiency factors are fully addressed. Farmers' characteristics such as gender, membership of cooperative society, storage facilities and nearness to market are factors affecting technical inefficiency.
Technical Efficiency Analysis of Small-holder Farmers in Rural and Peri-urban Areas of Nigeria
J Hum Ecol, 2012
This study analysed technical efficiency of smallholder farmers in rural and peri-urban areas of Nigeria using 224 rural farmers and 393 peri-urban farmers in Benue State. The stochastic frontier production function was used to analyse data. The study showed technical efficiency among the respondents in the rural areas varied substantially ranging between 0.00 and 1.00, with a mean technical efficiency of 0.11. In the peri-urban areas, technical efficiency among the respondents varied widely ranging between 0.00 and 0.83, with a mean technical efficiency of 0.30. High levels of technical inefficiency are highly attributable to the low availability of extension services and information about technical aspects of crop technologies. Revamping the productivity of smallholder farmers therefore requires a sustained effort to improve farmers' access to technological information, quality productive farm labour and product markets and to lower the risks they face.
Technical Efficiency of Maize Farmers in Ghana: A Stochastic Frontier Approach
The purpose of this study is to examine the technical efficiency of Ghanaian maize farmers from the parametric perspective. In this study, the stochastic frontier approach (SFA) assumed the Cobb-Douglas functional form and technical efficiency of Ghanaian maize farmers is then estimated using first phase data from the database of sub-Saharan Africa's intensification of food crops agriculture (Afrint I). Using household characteristics, human capital, farmer's resource situation, social capital and experience variables, the study found that farmers are producing below the frontier with average technical efficiency of 53 percent. Policy variables such as credit access; education and extension access and farm size played a stronger role in technical efficiency levels.
Journal of Agriculture and Food Sciences, 2022
The study examined the determinants of technical efficiency among lowland rice farmers in Enugu State, Nigeria. Primary data were sourced from rice producers through the use of welldesigned questionnaires. The study was conducted in four agricultural zones of Enugu State, during the 2017/2018 cropping season. Multistage and simple random sampling technique was employed to select 300 sampled rice farmers for the study. Cobb-Douglas stochastic production frontier function was used for the analysis. The result revealed that (98%) of random variation in the output of farmers was because of their inefficiency in their use of productive inputs in the study area. .Apart from farm size with estimated coefficient of (0.0531), fertilizer (0.0329), seed (0.2319), labour (0.0804) and agro-chemical (0.1711) were underutilized by the rice farmers. The average technical efficiency for the farmers was 0.71 implying that, on the average, the respondents are able to obtain 71% of potential output from a given mixture of production inputs. Thus, in a short run, there is a minimal scope (29%) of increasing the efficiency, by adopting the technology and techniques used by the most technically efficient farmer. High cost of inputs (MS=3.69), bad roads (MS=3.67), poor credit accessibility (MS=3.40) and inadequate storage facilities (MS꞊2.90) were found to be the major constraints of the rice farmers. The study recommends that in order to improve efficiency of resource use by the farmers in the study area, more of labour, seed, fertilizer and agro-chemicals should be utilized.
The International Journal of Science & Technoledge
Millet is a prominent staple food among households in northern Nigeria; hence the bulk of its production is from the region. This study examined the technical efficiency of smallholder pearl millet farmers in north-western Nigeria. Using a sample of 430 smallholder farmers in the Kano and Jigawa states, the data for the study were collected during the 2015/2016 cropping season. Stochastic frontier analysis and least square regression were used to estimate the technical efficiency of millet farmers and to examine its determinants, respectively. The results obtained from the stochastic frontier analysis show substantial technical inefficiency among smallholder pearl millet farmers. The results reveal that all the six production variables used in the model: farm size, fertilizer, manure, labour, seed, and agrochemical, had a positive technical relationship with pearl millet output and were statistically significant. The elasticity of production, with a value of 1.83, showed that the pe...
EJFOOD, European Journal of Agriculture and Food Sciences Vol. 2, No. 6, November 2020, 2020
This study evaluated Economics and Technical Efficiency of Maize Production Among Small Scale Farmers in Abuja, Nigeria; Stochastic Frontier Model Approach; Multi-stage sampling technique was adopted and used. Primary data were collected through the use of well-structured questionnaire from one hundred and fifty (150) sampled respondents in the study area. Data were analyzed to achieve the specified objectives using the following tools of analysis, Descriptive Statistics, Stochastic Frontier, Gross Margin Analysis, Financial Analysis, Five Point Likert Scale, and Principal Components Analysis. The results show that majority 40.47% of the sampled respondents were among the age range of 41-50 years of age and 25.33% were within the age bracket of 31-40 years of age. The mean age of the sampled farmers is 44 years. Which indicated that Young and energetic farmers are able to withstand stress and adopt new innovations. Most 88.67% of the farmers were male. Majority 72.67% were married. The mean household size of the sampled respondents is 6 members per family. Majority (67%) of the small-scale maize farmers had 1-2 ha of land and the average farm size cultivated by the farmers was 2.576 ha. The factors influencing total output of maize were seed input (P<0.01), Farm Size (P<0.05), quantity of fertilizer (P<0.05), and labour input (P<0.01) were statistically significant variables. The results of the inefficiency components show that the factors influencing technical inefficiency includes: age (P<0.01), education (P<0.01), access to credit (P<0.05), farming experience, and household size (P<0.05) and were statistically significant. The total revenue realized by the sampled small-scale maize farmers was N238,317 on average. While the total variable costs on average basis was N109,702.93. The gross margin realized was N128667.07. The gross margin ratio was 0.54 while operating ratio calculated was 0.857 and the rate of return on investment (RORI) was 1.17. The retained component from the constraint's analysis include Lack of Improve Seed, Lack of Transportation, Poor Storage Facilities, Inadequate Capital, and Cattle Herdsmen. The retained components explained 60% of the variation of the component included in the model. The study therefore, recommends that affordable loans and adequate capital should be made available to the small-scale maize farmers, farmers should be properly trained and educated by the non-governmental organizations and extension agents on chemical application, fertilizer use and pests and diseases control measures especially on integrated pest management (IPM). Inputs like improve seeds, fertilizer, and chemicals should be made available to farmers at subsidized rates and at appropriate time coinciding with production periods for proper usage. Provisions should be made for transportation and storage facilities for farmers, the issue of conflict between farmers and herdsmen should be brought to book and resolved amicably for peaceful coexistence.
Agriculture is the mainstay of Cameroon economy as it serves the purpose of employment, food, and livelihood. However, Cameroon agriculture is plague by low productivity, inefficiency in production and dependent on imports. For this reason, this study examined the technical efficiency of rice farmers in Cameroon NorthWest region. Data were collected from 144 farmers using structured questionnaires and interview schedule. The Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and a stochastic frontier analysis. The result from the stochastic frontier analysis shows that the variance parameters (sigma square and gamma) were statistically significant. The coefficient of farm size, fertilizers, labor and herbicides were positive and significant. The mean technical efficiency level was 84 percent implying that rice farmers' technical efficiency could be increased by 16 percent if the available resources are efficiently utilized. The inefficiency model shows that credit access is the significant factor that is negatively related to technical inefficiency. This finding is in line with government efforts (SEMRY, UNVDA, CARFIC, and The Second Generation Agriculture) of providing credits to farmers to improve their productivity.
Journal of Development and Agricultural Economics, 2011
The primary objective of the study was to estimate the levels of technical efficiency in small scale maize production in the Mfantseman Municipality of Ghana using the Stochastic Frontier Approach. The study also attempted to determine some socioeconomic characteristics and management practices which influence technical efficiency in maize production. Responsiveness of yield to production inputs was also estimated by computing input elasticities. The marginal value product for fertilizer, labor and seed were also calculated. Finally, the marginal physical products, average physical products, relative efficiency of resource use and the returns to scale of input use were calculated. Results indicated that the mean technical efficiency of small scale maize production in the study area is 58%; however, this ranges from 17 to 99%. There is distinct and inter gender variability in technical efficiency in the maize producing villages. In addition, the number of years of school the farmer has had in formal education, age of the farmer, household size, and offfarm income activities of the farmer impact on technical efficiency. The estimated marginal physical products showed that, ceteris paribus, each additional unit use of maize seed increased output by 31 kg (0.31 bags). Fertilizer also increased output by 12 kg (0.12 bags) and labor increased output by 29 kg (0.29 bags). Lastly the estimated return to scale is 1.49 indicating increasing returns to scale of maize production in the study area.
Applied Economics and Finance, 2015
The stochastic production frontier was employed in the analysis of the technical efficiency of small scale cassava farmers in Cross River State. A multi-stage random sampling technique was adopted in selecting two hundred (200) cassava farmers from Ikom and Ogoja Agricultural zones in the State. Structured questionnaires were used in collecting data for the study. A stochastic production function, using the Maximum Likelihood Estimating (MLE) technique, was used in estimating the farmer's technical efficiency and their determinants in the study area. The mean technical efficiency of the cassava farmer's was 89%. The result of the generalized Likelihood Ratio (LR) tests confirm that the cassava farmers were technically inefficient, implying that there is room to improve technical efficiency with the farmers' current resource base and available technology. Age and sex of the farmers had negative but significant effect on their technical efficiency, while education, family size, farming experience and farm size had significant and positive influence on farmer's technical efficiency. Therefore, policies that would encourage experienced and educated farmers, especially women to continue in cassava farming are recommended.