Abstract
This study employed the input-oriented DEA approach with variable returns to scale assumption to assess the technical, scale, allocative and economic efficiencies of 124 randomly selected tomato farmers under irrigation in the Upper East Region using data of the 2017/2018 production season. The mean technical efficiency and scale efficiency were 97.1 and 97% respectively with many farmers experiencing increasing returns to scale. The mean allocative and economic efficiencies were 42.1 and 41.5% respectively. Farmer’s age, tomato land size, fuel quantity, fertilizer quantity and chemical quantity (herbicide and pesticide) were all significant determinants of technical efficiency scores whereas extension visit, tomato land size and chemical quantity significantly influenced both allocative and economic efficiencies. It is recommended that agro-inputs and fuel usage for tomato farmers under irrigation in the dry season be increased to improve technical efficiency. It is also recommended that extension education to farmers on effective inputs allocation and cost minimization strategies be intensified. Key words: Allocative, economic and technical efficiency, data envelopment analysis, Tobit regression, tomatoes, Upper East Region of Ghana  
Highlights
The crops sub-sector of Ghana forms a key component of the agricultural sector, holding a larger share of agricultural GDP of the country with annual growth of 9.4% in 2017 (Ministry of Food and Agriculture - MoFA, 2018)
The results indicate that some of the farmers had no formal education though the mean age of formal education in years was 5 years with some farmers having up to 17 years of formal education
The high number of man-hours of household labour could be an indication that most of the tomato farmers rely heavily on labour provided by household members to undertake their activities
Summary
The crops sub-sector of Ghana forms a key component of the agricultural sector, holding a larger share of agricultural GDP of the country with annual growth of 9.4% in 2017 (Ministry of Food and Agriculture - MoFA, 2018). Ghana has a comparative advantage in the production of tomatoes in large scale for domestic consumption and export This is as a result of the favourable environmental conditions that support the growth of the crop. Reports on tomato yield in recent times indicate an increasing output levels, the average yield of the crop is still 7.2 metric tonnes per hectare, which is far below the potential yield of 15.0 metric tonnes per hectare. This leaves farmers with a yield gap of about 7.8
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