Analysis of factors affecting technical efficiency of smallholder maize farmers in Ethiopia

[摘要] Agriculture is the dominant sector of the Ethiopian economy which typically consists ofsmallholder rain fed farming systems. Low production and productivity characterisesEthiopian agriculture resulting in the country being unable to meet the increasing food demandof its population. As a result, the country continuously faces food insecurity and to someextent relies on food aid and food imports. The key to growth of agricultural production inEthiopia lies in increasing the productivity and efficiency of smallholder farmers. TheEthiopian government has given substantial policy emphasis to increased productivity ofsmallholder crop farmers through the Agricultural Development Led Industrialization (ADLI)strategy. The ADLI strategy emphasises on increasing the adoption and intensification of yieldenhancing inputs such as fertilisers and improved seeds to boost crop productivity, especiallymaize which is the principal crop. In response to the efforts of the development strategy,substantial improvements in the adoption and utilisation of the yield enhancing inputs havebeen observed in maize production; however the maize yield is not showing expectedimprovements. The low levels of maize productivity might be the result of technicalinefficiencies existing in smallholder production. Information about the technical efficiency ofsmallholder maize farmers at farm level is important for improvements in productivity.However in Ethiopia this information is limited making an empirical study of the technicalefficiency necessary. The research investigated the factors affecting the technical efficiency ofsmallholder maize farmers in Ethiopia with the aim of generating reliable information aboutthe level of technical efficiency and the factors affecting technical inefficiency of smallholdermaize production. Stochastic Frontier Analysis technique was employed and the data for theresearch was secondary data obtained from the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopiaconsisting of 438 observations.From the empirical estimation, it is found that nitrogen is an important input that can increasemaize productivity significantly. Seed and labour inputs are found statistically insignificant inexplaining maize production. The estimated value of y, which is a parameter used to indicatethe proportion of total variance that is attributed to technical inefficiency is 0.99 andsignificant. The value of y revealed that about 99% of the random variation in output of maizeproduction is attributed to the technical inefficiency component which indicates the importance of examining technical inefficiencies in maize production. The estimated meantechnical efficiency score of the sample is 77% with the minimum and maximum efficiencyscores of 3 to 96%, respectively. The mean technical efficiency implies that on average, thesampled maize farmers are able to obtain 77% of their potential output using the currentproduction inputs. The finding suggested the presence of considerable levels of technicalinefficiency that contributed to decreased maize productivity. The farmers have the potentialto increase their maize production by about 23% by using their existing resources andtechnology more efficiently. While examining the determinants of technical efficiency, age,gender, household size, oxen, extension, irrigation, credit, seed type and soil protection werefound to be important factors affecting the technical efficiency of the sampled maize farmers.The study revealed the possibility of improving the current low maize productivity byremoving the technical inefficiencies. The current level of low technical efficiency can beaddressed through increasing farmers' access to rural credit and extension services, promotingsoil and land conservation practices and by promoting small-scale irrigation schemes.

[发布机构] University of the Free State