IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/40461.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Analysis of technical efficiency of crop producing smallholder farmers in Tigray,Ethiopia

Author

Listed:
  • Asefa, Shumet

Abstract

This paper provides new estimates of small holder farmers' technical efficiency and its principal determinants using a rural Tigray micro finance survey data collected in 2009. Both descriptive and econometric methods are used. The hypotheses tests confirm the adequacy of Cobb-Douglas over Translog frontier; the appropriateness of using SFA over OLS; the joint statistical significance of inefficiency effects; the appropriateness of using truncated normal distribution for one sided error; and the increasing returns to scale nature of the stochastic production function. The maximum likelihood parameter estimates showed that except labor all input variables have positive and significant effect on production. The results reveal that number of oxen owned has the highest elasticity, then land, followed by labor and value of farm equipment. The analysis shows that the mean technical efficiency of farmers is 60.38% implying that output in the study area can be increased by 39.62% at the existing level of inputs and current technology by operating at full technical efficient level. The estimated stochastic frontier production function revealed that all determinants (except households' sex, farm size, participation in irrigation, and member to association) have significant effect on efficiency of farmers. The sign of coefficients of determinants is found as the expected, except households' sex. Education of household heads, family literacy, family size, share cropping, credit access, crop diversification, and land fertility are found to enhance efficiency. In contrast, Households' age, dependency ratio, livestock size, and off-farm activity are found to increase inefficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Asefa, Shumet, 2011. "Analysis of technical efficiency of crop producing smallholder farmers in Tigray,Ethiopia," MPRA Paper 40461, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 19 Sep 2012.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:40461
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/40461/1/MPRA_paper_40461.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Basnayake, B.M.J.K. & Gunaratne, L.H.P., 2002. "Estimation of Technical Efficiency and It's Determinants in the Tea Small Holding Sector in the Mid Country Wet Zone of Sri Lanka," Sri Lankan Journal of Agricultural Economics, Sri Lanka Agricultural Economics Association (SAEA), vol. 4, pages 1-15.
    2. Greene, William H., 1980. "Maximum likelihood estimation of econometric frontier functions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 27-56, May.
    3. Alene, Arega D. & Hassan, Rashid M., 2003. "Measuring The Impact Of Ethiopia'S New Extension Program On The Productive Efficiency Of Farmers," 2003 Annual Meeting, August 16-22, 2003, Durban, South Africa 25919, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. repec:aer:wpaper:163 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Waleerat Suphannachart & Peter Warr, 2010. "Total Factor Productivity in Thai Agriculture Measurement and Determinants," Working Papers 201001, Kasetsart University, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    6. repec:aer:wpaper:178 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. World Bank, 2007. "World Development Indicators 2007," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 8150.
    8. Meeusen, Wim & van den Broeck, Julien, 1977. "Efficiency Estimation from Cobb-Douglas Production Functions with Composed Error," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 18(2), pages 435-444, June.
    9. Kumbhakar, Subal C., 1994. "Efficiency estimation in a profit maximising model using flexible production function," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 10(2), pages 143-152, April.
    10. Forsund, Finn R. & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Peter, 1980. "A survey of frontier production functions and of their relationship to efficiency measurement," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 5-25, May.
    11. Stevenson, Rodney E., 1980. "Likelihood functions for generalized stochastic frontier estimation," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 57-66, May.
    12. Battese, George E. & Coelli, Tim J., 1988. "Prediction of firm-level technical efficiencies with a generalized frontier production function and panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 387-399, July.
    13. George E. Battese & Greg S. Corra, 1977. "Estimation Of A Production Frontier Model: With Application To The Pastoral Zone Of Eastern Australia," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 21(3), pages 169-179, December.
    14. Owuor, George & Shem, Ouma A., 2009. "What are the Key Constraints in Technical Efficiency of Smallholder Farmers in Africa? Empirical Evidence from Kenya," 111th Seminar, June 26-27, 2009, Canterbury, UK 52807, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    15. Kumbhakar, Subal C & Ghosh, Soumendra & McGuckin, J Thomas, 1991. "A Generalized Production Frontier Approach for Estimating Determinants of Inefficiency in U.S. Dairy Farms," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 9(3), pages 279-286, July.
    16. Kodde, David A & Palm, Franz C, 1986. "Wald Criteria for Jointly Testing Equality and Inequality Restriction s," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 54(5), pages 1243-1248, September.
    17. Sherlund, Shane M. & Barrett, Christopher B. & Adesina, Akinwumi A., 2002. "Smallholder technical efficiency controlling for environmental production conditions," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 85-101, October.
    18. Battese, George E. & Corra, Greg S., 1977. "Estimation Of A Production Frontier Model: With Application To The Pastoral Zone Of Eastern Australia," Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 21(3), pages 1-11, December.
    19. Lilyan E. Fulginiti & Richard K. Perrin, 1998. "Agricultural productivity in developing countries," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 19(1-2), pages 45-51, September.
    20. Battese, George E., 1992. "Frontier production functions and technical efficiency: a survey of empirical applications in agricultural economics," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 7(3-4), pages 185-208, October.
    21. Thiam, Abdourahmane & Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Rivas, Teodoro E., 2001. "Technical efficiency in developing country agriculture: a meta-analysis," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 25(2-3), pages 235-243, September.
    22. Battese, G E & Coelli, T J, 1995. "A Model for Technical Inefficiency Effects in a Stochastic Frontier Production Function for Panel Data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 325-332.
    23. Aigner, Dennis & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Peter, 1977. "Formulation and estimation of stochastic frontier production function models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 21-37, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anbes Tenaye, 2020. "Technical Efficiency of Smallholder Agriculture in Developing Countries: The Case of Ethiopia," Economies, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-27, April.
    2. Gashaw Tadesse ABATE & Gian Nicola FRANCESCONI & Kindie GETNET, 2014. "Impact Of Agricultural Cooperatives On Smallholders’ Technical Efficiency: Empirical Evidence From Ethiopia," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 85(2), pages 257-286, June.
    3. Haile, Kusse & Gebre, Engida & Workye, Agegnehu, 2020. "Does Technical Efficiency Matter for Ethiopia’s Sorghum Producer Farmers? A Study on its Implication for Productivity Improvement," Ethiopian Journal of Economics, Ethiopian Economics Association, vol. 29(01), April.
    4. Lema, Tadesse Zenebe & Tessema, Solomon Amare & Abebe, Fentahun Addis, 2017. "Analysis of the Technical Efficiency of Rice Production in Fogera District of Ethiopia: A Stochastic Frontier Approach," Ethiopian Journal of Economics, Ethiopian Economics Association, vol. 26(01), April.
    5. Tadie Mirie Abate & Abebe Birara Dessie & Taye Melese Mekie, 2019. "Technical efficiency of smallholder farmers in red pepper production in North Gondar zone Amhara regional state, Ethiopia," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 8(1), pages 1-18, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Coelli, Tim J., 1995. "Recent Developments In Frontier Modelling And Efficiency Measurement," Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 39(3), pages 1-27, December.
    2. Tanira T. Kingi & Tom F. Kompas, 2005. "Communal Land Ownership and Agricultural Development: Overcoming Technical Efficiency Constraints Among Fiji’s Indigenous Sugercane Growers," International and Development Economics Working Papers idec05-11, International and Development Economics.
    3. repec:aer:wpaper:172 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Althaler, Karl S. & Slavova, Tatjana, 2000. "DEA Problems under Geometrical or Probability Uncertainties of Sample Data," Economics Series 89, Institute for Advanced Studies.
    5. Tom Kompas, 2001. "Catch, Efficiency and Management: A Stochastic Production Frontier Analysis of the Australian Northern Prawn Fishery," International and Development Economics Working Papers idec01-8, International and Development Economics.
    6. Tom Kompas & Tuong Nhu Che & R. Quentin Grafton, 2004. "Technical efficiency effects of input controls: evidence from Australia's banana prawn fishery," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(15), pages 1631-1641.
    7. repec:ags:bdbjaf:258303 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Edward Ebo ONUMAH & Bernhard BRÜMMER & Gabriele HÖRSTGEN-SCHWARK, 2010. "Productivity of the hired and family labour and determinants of technical inefficiency in Ghana's fish farms," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 56(2), pages 79-88.
    9. Martín Rossi, 2015. "The Econometrics Approach to the Measurement of Efficiency: A Survey," Working Papers 117, Universidad de San Andres, Departamento de Economia, revised Feb 2015.
    10. Reddy, Mahendra, 2002. "Implication of Tenancy Status on Productivity and Efficiency: Evidence from Fiji," Sri Lankan Journal of Agricultural Economics, Sri Lanka Agricultural Economics Association (SAEA), vol. 4, pages 1-20.
    11. Sedik, David & Trueblood, Michael & Arnade, Carlos, 1999. "Corporate Farm Performance in Russia, 1991-1995: An Efficiency Analysis," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 514-533, September.
    12. Francisca Pacheco & Rafael Sánchez & Mauricio G. Villena, 2021. "Estimating local government efficiency using a panel data parametric approach: the case of Chilean municipalities," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(3), pages 292-314, January.
    13. Ali M. Oumer & Amin Mugera & Michael Burton & Atakelty Hailu, 2022. "Technical efficiency and firm heterogeneity in stochastic frontier models: application to smallholder maize farms in Ethiopia," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 213-241, April.
    14. Antonio Lopes & Luca Giordano, 2006. "Risk Preference and Investments Quality as Determinants of Efficiency in the Italian Banking System," Quaderni DSEMS 12-2006, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, Matematiche e Statistiche, Universita' di Foggia.
    15. Roy, Manish & Mazumder, Ritwik, 2016. "Technical Efficiency of Fish Catch in Traditional Fishing: A Study in Southern Assam," Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Rajarshi Majumder, vol. 5(1), pages 55-68.
    16. Mulwa, Richard & Kabubo-Mariara, Jane, 2017. "Productive Efficiency and Its Determinants in a Changing Climate: A Monotonic Translog Stochastic Frontier Analysis," EfD Discussion Paper 17-6, Environment for Development, University of Gothenburg.
    17. Tom Kompas, 2004. "Market reform, productivity and efficiency in Vietnamese rice production," International and Development Economics Working Papers idec04-4, International and Development Economics.
    18. Madau, Fabio A., 2005. "Technical Efficiency in Organic Farming: An Application on Italian Cereal Farms Using a Parametric Approach," 2005 International Congress, August 23-27, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark 24545, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    19. Alejandro Esteller-Moré, 2005. "Is There a Connection Between the Tax Administration and the Political Power?," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 12(5), pages 639-663, September.
    20. Tom Kompas & Tuong Nhu Che, 2004. "Production and Technical Efficiency on Australian Dairy Farms," International and Development Economics Working Papers idec04-1, International and Development Economics.
    21. Abdul Wadud, 2013. "Impact of Microcredit on Agricultural Farm Performance and Food Security in Bangladesh," Working Papers 14, Institute of Microfinance (InM).
    22. Tom Kompas & Tuong Nhu Che & Hoa Thi Minh Nguyen & Ha Quang Nguyen, 2012. "Productivity, Net Returns, and Efficiency: Land and Market Reform in Vietnamese Rice Production," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 88(3), pages 478-495.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Technical Efficiency; Smallholder Farmers; Agriculture;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:40461. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.