Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Technical Efficiency of Barley Production: The Case of Smallholde Farmers in Meket District, Amhara National Regional State, Ethiopia

Version 1 : Received: 26 January 2018 / Approved: 26 January 2018 / Online: 26 January 2018 (15:51:45 CET)
Version 2 : Received: 23 March 2018 / Approved: 23 March 2018 / Online: 23 March 2018 (08:54:55 CET)

How to cite: Wollie, G. Technical Efficiency of Barley Production: The Case of Smallholde Farmers in Meket District, Amhara National Regional State, Ethiopia. Preprints 2018, 2018010253. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201801.0253.v1 Wollie, G. Technical Efficiency of Barley Production: The Case of Smallholde Farmers in Meket District, Amhara National Regional State, Ethiopia. Preprints 2018, 2018010253. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201801.0253.v1

Abstract

This study analyzed the technical efficiency of barley production by smallholder farmers in Meket district, Amhara National Regional State, Ethiopia. A cross sectional data from a sample of 123 barley producers during the 2016/17 production season was collected by applying two stage random sampling. To address the objective of the study, both descriptive statistics and econometric models were used to analyze the data. The trans-log functional form of the production function simultaneously with single stage estimation approach was used to estimate the production of barley output and technical inefficiency factors. The estimated stochastic production frontier model indicated that input variables such as fertilizer, human labor and oxen power were the significant variables to increase the quantity of barley output while, barley seed had a negative effect. The estimated mean levels of technical efficiency of the sample farmers were about 70.9% which revealed that, presence of a room to increase their technical efficiency level on average by 29.1% with the existing resources. The discrepancy ratio gamma indicated that 63% of the total variation from the frontier comes due to technical inefficiency while, the remaining 37% comes due to factors outside the control of farmers. Among the hypothesized factors that affect technical inefficiency; education level, extension contact and number of barley plots significantly and negatively affected technical inefficiency score. Besides, practice of crop rotation, distance of residence from the nearest main market, total expenditure and soil fertility was found to have a positive and significant effect. Hence, emphasis should be given to decrease the inefficiency level of those more inefficient farm households via experience sharing among the farmers and usage of improved or certified barley seed. Besides to this, policies and strategies of the government should be directed towards increasing farmers’ education, improve the system of input distributions and institutional facilities.

Keywords

Technical Efficiency; Stochastic Frontier; Trans-log; Meket; Barley

Subject

Business, Economics and Management, Economics

Comments (2)

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Comment 1
Received: 31 January 2018
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.
Comment: This article is very interesting and clearly addresed his objective as required
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Comment 2
Received: 13 March 2018
Commenter: Abebe Kebede
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.
Comment: very interesting article and also the analysis is made based on real as well as current data
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