Determinants of technical efficiency of smallholder farmers’ bread wheat production and implications of seed recycling: A stochastic frontier approach

Abstract

Background: Due to decreasing productivity trends, enhancing farm level technical efficiency (TE) in bread wheat production (BWP) is central to Ethiopia's food security strategy. This requires increased BW productivity through the use of improvements in seeds and TE. However, there is some empirical research that examines the institutional, socio-demographic, economic, and agronomic determinants of the TE of BWP simultaneously. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze determinants of TE and the implication of seed recycling on TE. Methods: The data was gathered from 450 randomly selected sample respondents via structured interviews, focus groups, and interviews with key informants. Data collection took place from December 15, 2021 to January 15, 2022. BW growing smallholder farmers were the major respondent of the study. Quantitative type of data including the number of inputs used, amount of wheat produced, and socio – demographic, economic, agronomic, and institutional variables were gathered and analyzed. The TE and factors affecting it were examined using a stochastic frontier production analysis with a trans-log functional specification. Results: The coefficients for labour (0.086), capital (0.22), fertilizer (0.042), weedicide (0.014), and machinery (0.005) were significantly positive at p<0.001 implying that an optimum increase to these inputs would increase BWP. The mean TE was found to be 79.99% indicating that farmers in the study operate 20.01% less than their potential. Nine of the hypothesized variables (69.2%) had significantly affected TE. Moreover, seed recycling reduced TE by 2.34%. Conclusion: Findings suggest that few farmers are able to grow BW either on the frontier or very close to it, which denotes high TE and poor access to improved seeds leading to seed recycling. Therefore, the farmer-to-farmer (F2F) extension method, which enables farmers to learn from their neighbors and create wider access to improved seeds through seed loans and vouchers are strongly suggested.

Efficiency dynamics among onion growers in Maharashtra: a comparative analysis of drip irrigation adopters and non-adopters

“…In addition to rationalizing the use of water and increasing its efficiency, the introduction of drip irrigation technology should also help to further improve the performance of other agricultural inputs. Internal inefficiencies of farmers in the use of inputs and technologies are a greater concern behind low productivity [ 29 , 30 ] than the availability of the inputs. To increase production, expanding the area under cultivation is a challenge [ 31 , 32 ], but the opportunity lies in the refinement of existing production technologies and the efficiency of available farm resources.…”