Abstract
BackgroundThe Guji Zone in particular and Oromia region in general have a huge potential for crop production that can even contribute for the country as a whole in the struggle for achieving food security. Maize is Ethiopia’s largest cereal crop in terms of total production, acreage, and the number of farm holdings. It is one of the staple crops produced in the study area. However, the farm productivity per hectare is low compared to the national average which indicates the presence of farming inefficiency in the study area. Thus, this study was undertaken with the objective of estimating the level of farmers’ technical efficiency in maize production and identifying the factors which determine the variation in the level of technical efficiency among the farmers.ResultsThis study was relied on the primary data collected from a sample of maize producing farm household of Adola Rede and Anna Sorra districts of the Guji Zone using a survey questionnaire. A simple random sampling technique was found appropriate for selecting the respondents, since the populations of these study area are homogeneous. The analysis was relied on a cross-sectional data collected from 234 sample farm households. A one-step stochastic frontier normal/truncated-normal model was used to estimate the farmers’ technical efficiency as well as to identify the determinants of yield per hectare of maize which was estimated by maximum-likelihood method. The empirical result indicates that there are large numbers of inefficient farmers in both districts. The estimated technical efficiency for maize producing farmers is equal to 69.03%. Besides, the current study revealed that 69.23% of maize producing farmers have been operating within a technical efficiency score interval equal to (0.5–0.75) in both districts. In addition, the maize yield per hectare in the study area is very low compared to the national average, i.e., the mean yield is 19.2 quintal per hectare. Moreover, the maximum-likelihood results show that gender of the head of the household, age of the head of the household, farm income, row planting, access to credit, number of active labor force, land size owned, access to improved seed and seed type used, and number of livestock were significantly determine the farmers technical inefficiency.ConclusionThe results of the study revealed that there is an opportunity which is being squandered in maize production in the study area. For instance, with a given technology, it is possible to raise the maize yield per hectare by 30.07% in the study area. Thus, the government and any concerned stakeholders should facilitate access to improved seed and fertilizer, credit, farm technology, and short-term training. Besides, all stakeholders should work in a cooperative and organized manner to implement the full agricultural package on farm level.
Highlights
The Guji Zone in particular and Oromia region in general have a huge potential for crop production that can even contribute for the country as a whole in the struggle for achieving food security
Ethiopia’s agricultural sector has witnessed consistent growth since 2003: maize production has expanded at 6% per annum, and the aggregate export values across all commodities have grown at 9% per annum
According to [21], the national average of maize yield per hectare is 30.2 quintals which show that the maize yield per hectare in the study area is below the national average
Summary
The Guji Zone in particular and Oromia region in general have a huge potential for crop production that can even contribute for the country as a whole in the struggle for achieving food security. In Ethiopia, the farmers have preferred for many years an expanding their farm size through clearing the forest and cultivation of the fragile marginal land to achieve their household’s food security. This practice contributes a lot for environmental degradation and variability of elements of weather and climate. In terms of maize productivity per hectare, South Africa’s yields (3.77 tons/ha) are relatively higher compared to Ethiopia which is 3.06 tons/ha [17] These results indicate that both countries are operating below the maximum potential grain yield which ranges from 7–12 tons/ha [1]. What is more is that, maize plays a crucial role in Ethiopia’s food security and it is the staple crop with the greatest production, i.e., 4.2 million tons in 2017/18, compared to teff which is 3.0 million tons and sorghum which is 2.7 million tons [28]
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