Abstract
The role of non-government organizations (NGOs) has been commendable in promoting sustainable farming. Through mobilization of existing resources and provision of training to farmers on various agriculture subjects, NGOs could trigger increased productivity and agricultural sustainability. However, empirical evidence on this claim is limited and no study recognizes the supporting conditions required for NGO intervention to improve productivity. Cross-sectional data from hazelnut farmers in Azerbaijan are used to evaluate the role of NGO intervention in improving farmers’ technical efficiency. To this end, stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) is applied to study hazelnut farmers’ production efficiency. Three different measures are employed to estimate NGO intervention: Training, subsidy and, a combination of training and subsidy. The results indicate that NGO intervention is not significant in influencing technical efficiency. This is attributable to the absence of good organization, innovation orientation, accountability and stakeholder involvement and support which are the necessary supporting conditions facilitating an enabling environment for NGO intervention to improve farmers’ technical efficiency. Therefore, we recommend policy directed at addressing these issues in order to simultaneously enhance farmers’ productivity and improve the functioning of the NGOs. Beyond NGO intervention, encouraging farmers to specialize in hazelnut production and allocating more suitable land for hazelnut production will also improve farmers’ technical efficiency significantly.
Highlights
Agriculture plays a vital role for humanity considering that human welfare heavily depends on the stability and amount of agricultural production [1,2]
The results indicate that non-government organizations (NGOs) intervention is not significant in influencing technical efficiency
Our results robustly suggest that NGO intervention is, at present, not associated with improvement in technical efficiency due to some missing elements that are necessary for creating an ideal environment for meaningful impact
Summary
Agriculture plays a vital role for humanity considering that human welfare heavily depends on the stability and amount of agricultural production [1,2]. The sector plays an essential role in the development process by supplying industrial inputs, food items, generating foreign exchange, contributing to gross domestic product (GDP), creating employment opportunities and expanding markets for industrial outputs. For developing countries, agriculture is the major source of income contributing approximately 32% in GDP [3] and employs about 70% of the world’s rural poor societies. With such statistics, agriculture is globally held as a critical strategy for world economic growth, poverty reduction and environmental sustainability [4].
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