Coffee production is the main economic activity for smallholder farmers in Rwanda; it is also a major export crop. However, Rwandan coffee production has been facing structural changes with a significant decline in production. Considering the importance of the coffee sector to rural livelihoods and its potential role in export earnings, there is a need to ensure that small-scale coffee farmers efficiently use scarce resources in their production activities. Thus, this study estimates the technical efficiency and possible sources of inefficiency in small-scale coffee farming in the Northern Province of Rwanda. Three hundred and twenty coffee farmers are sampled to carry out a simultaneous estimation of the stochastic production frontier and technical inefficiency model. The results indicate that the mean technical efficiency among small-scale coffee farmers is 82 percent, implying a potential to increase coffee production by 18 percent with the current level of resources and technology. Coffee production displays increasing returns to scale and factors such as education, access to credit, extension services, improved variety of coffee trees, cropping system, and land consolidation have a positive and significant effect on technical efficiency. Thus, development policies in the coffee sector might focus more on enhancing the accessibility of farmers to extension services and credit facilities. In addition, adoption of high-yielding and disease-resistant coffee varieties, better cropping systems, and management of coffee plantations in land consolidation might reduce technical inefficiency among coffee farmers in the Northern Province of Rwanda.

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Background Rwanda and most parts of sub-Saharan Africa face severe challenges of increasing maize productivity, which has direct consequences on food security. Due to these challenges, policy-makers have paid particular attention to finding the cost-effective strategies of boosting maize production. In an effort to increase productivity, the literature suggests that the adoption of yield-enhancing technologies and production efficiency should be given priority. The objective of this study is to examine and compare the technical efficiency and technological gaps of maize farms that grow different seed varieties in Rwanda. Methods The data used in this study were obtained from a survey of 360 household farmers conducted in the Eastern Province of Rwanda during the 2018–2019 cropping season. The study applies the stochastic meta-frontier production function approach to estimate the technical efficiency and technological gaps of maize farms operating under heterogeneous production technologies. Results Results indicate that there are differences in technical efficiency measures among the three groups of farmers (i.e., adopters of hybrids, open-pollinated varieties, and local maize varieties). In particular, we find that on average, farms growing hybrid maize varieties appear to have higher values of technical efficiency, technology gap ratio, and meta-frontier technical efficiency than farms growing OPVs and local maize varieties. Thus, the analysis shows that there are significant technological and managerial performance gaps among farmers. Conclusions From a policy perspective, the results of this study suggest the development of policy measures that may reduce the managerial and technological gaps existing among farmers to improve productivity and food security. Based on the results of this study, one of the crucial avenues to close this gap would be to improve access to improved agricultural technologies such as certified hybrid seeds. Additionally, policies aiming to enhance technical efficiency and productivity should focus on expanding the delivery of extension services and strengthening the technical assistance provided to farmers’ cooperatives.

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