Factors Influencing Efficiency and Productivity of Contracted and Non-Contracted Tobacco Farmers in Zimbabwe: Case of Mount Darwin District

This research was financed by the Govan Mbeki Research and Development Centre. Abstract This main aim of this study was to determine the factors influencing efficiency and productivity of contracted and non-contracted tobacco farmers in Mount Darwin District of Zimbabwe. Data was collected from 380 randomly sampled smallholder farmers. The Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used to estimate the efficiency scores for the tobacco farmers. The Tobit model censored to zero was used to evaluate the determinants of efficiency. The results showed that gender had a negative impact on both technical efficiency and economic efficiency. The probability of one being a male was likely to reduce economic efficiency by 0.022. However, there was a positive relationship between gender and allocative efficiency. The probability of one being a male was likely to result in increase in allocative efficient by 0.035. The results from the study showed that contracted farmers were more productive and efficient than non-contracted farmers. The ages of the farmer and education level were not significant in influencing the economic efficiencies of the farmers. Other variables like farming experience, production model, access to extension and farm size were statistically significant in influencing the economic efficiencies of tobacco farmers. The possible policy recommendations to improve efficiency of the tobacco farmers are drawn from the research findings. Keywords: technical efficiency, allocative efficiency; economic efficiency; data envelopment analysis, tobacco farmers, Mount Darwin District. DOI: 10.7176/JESD/10-10-05 Publication date:May 31st 201