ABSTARCT
Sustainable vegetable production is dependent on a guaranteed water supply. The technical efficiency of leafy vegetable farming as affected by various sources of water was investigated. A stochastic frontier production function was used to analyze data collected with a pretested questionnaire from 160 randomly selected leafy vegetable farms in the 2015 production season. Data collected include quantity of leafy vegetable produced, source of water—that is, streams, wells (open holes), or boreholes (capped holes) or wholly precipitation-dependent practice—seed, and fertilizer. Most (74.4%) respondents used the water source for domestic purposes and vegetable production; 25.6% of respondents used the water only for vegetable production. Streams as water source had the highest effect (21.0%) on technical efficiency in leafy vegetable production. Seed (P < 0.01) and fertilizer (P < 0.01) were important factors for successful vegetable production. Vegetable farmers using stream water were more efficient than users of other sources.