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ARTICLES

Comparing the technical efficiency of farms benefiting from different agricultural interventions in Kenya's drylands

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Pages 287-301 | Published online: 11 May 2012
 

Abstract

Farmers in Kenya's drylands have difficulty accessing farm production resources and in consequence farm productivity is low. It is therefore important to find strategies for improving access to these scarce resources to help farmers use them efficiently. This paper analyses and compares the technical efficiency of five groups of small farms affected by five different agricultural interventions. The aim of the study was to identify intervention strategies that significantly improve farm efficiency. Data envelopment analysis was used to compute farm-level average technical efficiencies for each of the intervention groups. The results showed that average technical efficiency was highest for the farms that had participated in an irrigation intervention. The findings suggest that the strategies promoted by this intervention, such as access to irrigation, inputs and markets, have the most significant effect on farm efficiency.

Acknowledgements

The researchers appreciate the funding of the research work by the African Economic Research Consortium, Nairobi.

Notes

1This is an economic state where resources are allocated in the most efficient manner.

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