Abstract
Programming techniques are used to calculate the efficiency of maize production on farms in the Transvaal homelands of KaNgwane, Lebowa and Venda, in 1991. The productivity losses that resulted from the 1992 drought are then calculated subject to the base year by adding a measure of technical progress and constructing multilateral Malmquist indices of total factor productivity (TFP), for the same 174 farms. In Venda, the least advanced region, productivity fell by 61%, compared with 74% in Lebowa and 89% in KaNgwane, which is far more commercialised. Three causes of these differences can be identified. Firstly, the improved seed and fertiliser technology that has been introduced by the Farmer Support Programmes has increased investment and hence risk. Secondly, the improved maize varieties appear to be less resistant to moisture stress than traditional seeds and lastly, there were unrecorded regional variations in the severity of the drought.
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