Measuring maize production efficiency in the eastern Ethiopia: Stochastic frontier approach

Abstract

This study evaluated the technical, economic and allocative efficiency of maize production in eastern Ethiopia using cross-sectional data collected from 480 maize plots. The stochastic production function, fitted using the Cobb–Douglas production function, indicated that the amount of seed, land and DAP (Diammonium phosphate) are highly significant in determining maize production in the study area. The results of the study also indicated that the potential to improve economic efficiency of maize production in the study area relies more on allocative efficiency compared with technical efficiency. The study also identified socioeconomic and institutional factors that determine technical efficiency in the study area.

Keywords:

• efficiency
• decomposition
• parametric
• maize
• Ethiopia

JEL Classifications:

• C67
• D24
• D61
• L23
• Q12
• Q18

ORCID

Musa Hasen Ahmed http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8880-9933

Notes

1 Kebele is the smallest administrative hierarchy in Ethiopia.

2 Refer to Ahmed et al. (2017) to find out more about the procedure used to generate the data used in this study.

3 Refer to the tables in the Appendix to see how adult-equivalent and TLU are calculated.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Haramaya University.