Abstract
A Cobb–Douglas stochastic production frontier was used to analyze the technical efficiency of wheat producers under row planting and broadcasting methods in Hadiya zone, southern Ethiopia. The estimated results of the Cobb–Douglas frontier model show that the mean technical efficiency was 83.4% and 57.8% under row planting and broadcasting, respectively. Approximately 646.882 kg/ha under row planting and 1393.038 kg/ha under broadcasting of wheat output were lost due to inefficiency. This reveals that under the existing practices there is a room to increase wheat yield more under broadcasting (42.2%) than row planting (16.6%) following the best-practice farms in the study area. The SPF model indicates that NPS, urea, labour and seed are significant determinants of wheat production level in both methods. The estimated SPF model together with the inefficiency parameters show that education, age, fertility status of the plot, family size, land fragmentation and extension contact were the main factors that had a significant influence on technical inefficiency of wheat farmers. Hence, emphasis should be given to improving the efficiency level of those less efficient farmers by adopting the practices of relatively efficient farmers in the area.
Highlights
Ethiopia is the largest wheat producer in Sub-Saharan Africa and wheat is one of the major staple food crops in many parts of the country
The mean level of technical efficiency further tells us that the level of wheat output of the sample respondents can be increased on average by about 16.6% under row planting and 42.2% under broadcasting if appropriate measures are taken to improve the level of efficiency of wheat growing farmers
The difference between actual agricultural production and potential for increasing its productivity still persists in Ethiopia
Summary
Ethiopia is the largest wheat producer in Sub-Saharan Africa and wheat is one of the major staple food crops in many parts of the country. As a result of this the country remains a net importer of wheat To improve this problem, row planting of wheat with improved level of efficiency becomes more crucial. This study was aimed to measure technical efficiency, yield gap due to inefficiency and identify the factors that influence the efficiency levels of wheat producers’ row planting and broadcasting methods in Hadiya zone, southern Ethiopia. The estimated results of the Cobb-Douglas frontier model shows that the mean technical efficiency was 83.4% and 57.8% under row planting and broadcasting respectively. The farmers with the same resources are producing different per hectare output, because of management inefficiency inputs, limited use of modern agricultural technologies, obsolete farming techniques, poor complementary services such as extension, credit, marketing, and infrastructure; poor and biased agricultural policies in developing countries like as Ethiopia (FAO and WFP 2012). According to (FAO 2011) the average cereal yield for the world and least developing countries were 3.71 t/ha and 2.02 t/ha, respectively, while, the average cereal yield in Ethiopia was limited to 1.76 t/ha
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