Technical efficiency of rice producing households in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam

Technical Efficiency (TE) is defined as an estimation of the ability of a household to produce the maximum output with the given inputs. It is usually estimated by using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). Data collected from 261 rice farming households in the Mekong Delta were used in the empirical analysis. Results show that the average TE among the surveyed households is above 76% in both the Constant (CRS) and the Variable Returns to Scale (VRS). The average scale efficiency score for these rice producing households is nearly one. The determinants of the quantity of rice or yields and of the TE for the households are significantly related with some variables such as the plot size, seed, and hired labor cost. However, technical inefficiency significantly depends on the farmers’ farming experience and adoption of advanced farming practices