Technical Efficiency of Small Scale Maize Production inMasaiti District, Zambia: A Stochastic Frontier Approach

Abstract

Maize is a major staple food crop of Zambia dominantly produced by smallholder farmers.  This paper examines technical efficiency of smallholder maize farmers in Zambia.  Data were collected using a structured questionnaire administrated to 100 randomly selected smallholder maize farmers in Masaiti district in Zambia.  The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and a stochastic frontier production function approach.  The estimated stochastic frontier Cobb-Douglas production function showed that maize land size and fertilizer were the significant factors that affected maize production.   The efficiency analysis results indicated that farm level technical efficiency ranged between 52.2% and 93.2% with a mean of 79.6%.  This indicates that overall, there is potential to increase maize production among smallholder farmers in the study area by 20.4% through efficient use of present technology.  The results of the inefficiency model indicate that age of farmer, cooperative membership which implies access to fertilizer, and farm size, have significant positive effects of efficiency.  The seed types used, rotation practices, and education level of the farmer had negative effects on technical efficiency.  The policy implications are that to improve farm efficiency efforts should focus on access to improved inputs such as certified seed and fertilizer),  information on agronomic practices, and farmer’s education.

Keywords: technical efficiency, stochastic production frontier, smallholder, maize, Zambia.