Analysis of levels and determinants of technical efficiency of wheat producing farmers: the case of east Gojame Zone, Amhara Region, Ethiopia

This paper examines the technical efficiency of smallholder wheat producers in three districts of the Misrak Gojam zone of Amhara region, Ethiopia. Using two stage stratified simple random sampling design, 210 wheat producing households were randomly selected and studied. Cobb-Douglas Stochastic Frontier Model was fitted to estimate farm level technical efficiency and the associated efficiency scores. The analysis of technical efficiency determents was conducted employing both Maximum likelihood (ML) and quantile regression techniques (QR). The study findings has shown presence of strong inefficiency in the use of factors of production. Fertilizer amount, plot size, oxen days and seed rate has shown their positive contribution in enhancing farm level technical efficiency. In percentage terms, the estimated minimum, average and maximum efficiency levels were 26%, 78% and 97%. As this result implies, a farmer with the estimated average efficiency level has the opportunity to entertain 19% boost in his wheat production by improving his technical efficiency level to the level of his most efficient counterpart. In general, the result had underlined farmers opportunity to boost their productivity by increasing the level of the inputs they are using pertaining to the given production technology. Adoption of wheat rust mitigation intervention was demonstrated being a major determinant of efficiency across all estimated efficiency levels while household size and being model farmer have expressed their significant positive effect on the efficiency level of best performing (75th and 99th efficiency quantiles) farmers.