Regional Analysis of Fish Farms in Ghana: A Stochastic MetaFrontier Approach

Abstract

Using a cross-section data of 320 observations, this paper employs the meta-frontier stochastic model to estimate and compare the productivity, efficiency levels and their determining factors among fish farms in Greater Accra, Ashanti, Western and Volta regions of Ghana. Findings reveal that productivity of output response to individual production factors employed in Greater Accra and Western regions exhibit increasing return to scale, whilst their counterpart in the Volta and Ashanti regions display decreasing return to scale. Some exogenous factors are also estimated to influence variance in efficiency. Fish farms in the Volta and Greater Accra regions are comparatively more technically efficient than their similitudes in the Western and Ashanti regions. Thus, whilst policy considerations to enhance efficiency and productivity of fish farms in the country are paramount, increasing fish output to the potential maximum could easily be achieved among farms in the Volta and Greater Accra regions than fish farms in the Western and Ashanti regions.