Abstract
Onion is recognized for its nutritional value, its curative capacities and its fitness to flavor diets. This article attempted to assess the economic efficiency of input combinations among onion farmers in the Volcanic Highlands in Rwanda. Data were collected using a questionnaire administered to a random sample of 94 small-scale onion producers. Cobb-Douglas type stochastic frontier functions were specified and estimated using maximum likelihood method to estimate technical, allocative, and economic efficiencies of onion production. A simultaneous-equations model was specified and estimated with seemingly unrelated regression method to identify the sources of technical, allocative, and economic efficiencies.
Highlights
Oignon (Allium cepa L.) is relatively very important crop because of its high nutritional value: it is rich in protein, calcium and riboflavin (Purseglove et al, 2000) and it has recognized curative powers and is mostly preferred for its distinctive fitness to heighten the flavor of the diets, the reason why it is among the most widespread and highly consumed vegetables all around the world (Hafez & Geries, 2019)
The results from the maximum likelihood estimates of the stochastic onion production function are detailed in the table 2
The results indicate that onion production scores increasing returns to scale as the sum of the input coefficients amounts to 1.03
Summary
Oignon (Allium cepa L.) is relatively very important crop because of its high nutritional value: it is rich in protein, calcium and riboflavin (Purseglove et al, 2000) and it has recognized curative powers and is mostly preferred for its distinctive fitness to heighten the flavor of the diets, the reason why it is among the most widespread and highly consumed vegetables all around the world (Hafez & Geries, 2019). The decrease in land productivity has been attributed to several factors including soil degradation due to long term practice of low input agriculture and poor farming systems associated with government policy of subsidizing chemical fertilizers for maize production. This has resulted in low fertile and fragile soils due to organic matter and carbon depletion leading to increased land desertification, declining or stagnant crop yields, poverty, and food insecurity and malnutrition (Republic of Rwanda, 2013). The remaining research and policy issue is to find the conditions under which the results achieved will remain over a longer period
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