Technical Efficiency of Carrot Production in the Asante-Mampong Municipality Using Stochastic Frontier Analysis

Abstract

This study was designed to estimate and explain the technical efficiency variations among carrot farmers in the Ashanti-Mampong Municipality of Ghana. This was motivated by great potential but lower yields in carrots production of the municipality, being one of the leading carrots producing districts in Ghana. A multistage sampling technique made up of purposive and simple random sampling techniques were employed for the study. Determinants and level of technical efficiency among carrot farmers in the municipality were estimated using the stochastic frontier model. The mean technical efficiency was 76.5% with a potential productivity gap of 23.5% in the short run without any additional inputs. Labour and fuel used in irrigation significantly and positively influenced output levels of carrot. Socioeconomic characteristics of farmers such as farm size, access to credit, household labour, age and years of education were all significant determinants of technical inefficiency. It is recommended that agro-inputs and fuel usage for carrot farmers under irrigation in the dry season be increased to improve technical efficiency. It is also recommended that extension education to farmers on effective input allocation be intensified.

Stochastic Frontier Analysis of Production, Socio-economic and Institutional Factors Affecting Technical Efficiency of Cowpea Production in Chuka Sub-county, Kenya

“…The coefficient of labour (0.825) was positive and statistically significant at 5%, which implied that an increase in labour by 1% would result in an increase in cowpea output by 0.825%. These findings are agreement with Mukhtar [64] and Abunyuwah [65] that an increase in labour results to an increase in production. Onuwa [3] posited that farmers interested with farm efficiency should maximize their output per unit of resource used, especially the amount of farm labour employed.…”

Technical efficiency in the Malaysian electric and electronic manufacturing industry: A stochastic frontier analysis approach

“…Examining this relationship in relation to an efficiency frontier holds significant interest for government and investment agencies, economists, and management professionals.The extent of technical inefficiency is captured by the difference between the efficiency frontier and the actual input-output relationship. Studies on TE have been conducted widely in various areas, such as the Indian manufacturing sector (Singh, Ashraf, & Ashish, 2019) carrot production (Abunyuwah, Yenibehit, & Ahiale, 2019) the Malaysian transportation industry (Hashim, Mohamed, Fahmy-Abdullah, & Sieng, 2021) and the Chinese energy industry (Wanke, Tan, Antunes, & Hadi-Vencheh, 2020) and agricultural production (Huang, Xu, & Guo, 2021). This evidence indicates that TE has been recognised as a relevant indicator for evaluating production efficiency and identifying weighted input that enhances efficiency.…”

“…Battese and Coelli (1992) and Battese and Coelli (1995) continued developing this model specifically to evaluate corporate efficiency performance. Most TE research uses the SFA model as it presents several advantages, such as incorporating random error and uncontrollable factors in the calculation, more statistical parameters, user-friendliness, and simple equations (Abunyuwah et al, 2019;Zhang, Hu, & Xu, 2020). Battese, Rao, and O'donnell (2004) also emphasised that the SFA model can identify irrelevant factors contributing to technical inefficiency.…”