FARM HOUSEHOLD EFFICIENCY IN MOZAMBIQUE

This article provides estimates of farm household efficiency and its determinants among smallholder farmers in Mozambique. A translog stochastic frontier production function and a first difference model incorporating a model of farm household inefficiency effects are applied to test the existence of agricultural farm household inefficiencies and their determinants in Mozambique. The null hypothesis of equal farm household efficiency among households was rejected. Variation in farm household efficiency indicates that access to agricultural technology is a severe constraint for most farm households. Factors such as access to advisory services, access to rural credit, membership to an agricultural association, use of improved agricultural technology (irrigation, improved seeds, animal traction and chemical inputs), were found to reduce significantly the level of household farm household inefficiencies. The stochastic production frontier shifted outwards but many farmers did not move along with it. Changes in access to extension, access to credit explain changes in the inefficiency change between 2002 and 2005