This paper seeks to analyze technical efficiency differences and identify the factors that could explain the scoring variations among small producers in the São Francisco Valley, Brazil. We applied the DEA-V model adopting variable return to scale to estimate the efficiency levels, assuming the production value as a dependent variable. Next, we estimated a Tobit model considering these results as the dependent variable. Results show that whereas producer technology, size and experience increase efficiency scores, age and productive diversification tend to reduce them. Other factors such as education level, training, associations and related research institutions were not significant.