Technical Efficiency of Maize Producer Smallholder Farmers in Alefa Woreda, North Western Ethiopia

Efficient uses of the existing resources by farm households improve their productivity and thereby increase their output. Maize is one of the dominant crops in the study area; however its productivity is very low. This shows that it is possible to raise output from existing inputs used if resources are properly used and efficiently allocated. The productivity of maize can be changed due to differences in the efficiency of the production process. Hence, this study aimed to analyzing the technical efficiency of maize production in Alefa District of central Gondar in Ethiopia. The objective of study was to measure the level of technical efficiency of maize producers and to identify the determinants of technical efficiencies in maize production among smallholder farmers in the study area. To address the objective of the study both primary and secondary data were collected. The primary data were collected from 152 maize producer farmers by two- stage sampling technique during 2019/20 production season. For data collection personal interview through a structural interview scheduled was employed. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. Technical efficiency of sampled farmers in maize production was estimated and analyzed by Cobb-Douglas functional form in stochastic frontier model (SFM) with single stage estimation method. The estimated SFM indicated that input variables (land, labor, oxen and DAP) were found significantly and positively influence maize production. The production of maize by sampled farmers was characterized in constant return to scale (1.08). The estimated gamma (γ) parameter was 0.91, which measures the relative deviation of output from the frontier level due to inefficiency. This implies that about 91% of the total variation in maize output was due to technical inefficiency effects. The estimated mean level of TE of maize producers was 0.82. This implies that production can be increased by 18 percent given the existing technological level. The results of this study indicated that among the farm specific, socioeconomic and institutional factors hypothesized to affect TE, age, family size, education status, frequency of extension contact, off farm income and credit access were significant determinants of the production level of maize. The findings obtained in this study could be quite useful to policy makers. Policy interventions should focus more on timely supply of DAP, and socioeconomic significant variables such as education, age, credit access, off farm income, family size and extension contact improve farmers’ efficiency in production of maize. Keywords/Phrase: Maize Production, Single Stage Estimation, Stochastic Frontier Model, Technical Efficiency DOI: 10.7176/JAAS/68-05 Publication date:September 30th 2020