Measuring the Technical Efficiency of Potato Prduction and Its Determinats in Iraq (Baghdad Province as Case Study).

The study aimed to estimate the technical efficiency and the factors affecting the inefficiency of wheat production farms. The Pareto curve was used to determine the importance of the problems facing farmers in the production process ‘the actual and potential production and the number of production losses in the study area were also calculated. A random sample of 100 wheat farmers was taken in Diyala Governorate including five districts The Stochastic Frontier Analysis was estimated using the Maximum Likelihood method. The results indicated that wheat production in Diyala Governorate is affected by the explanatory variables (seeds, compound fertilizers, urea fertilizers, pesticides, mechanical work, and human work). The total elasticity of the productive factors was 0.845, which implies that the farmers carry out their agricultural operations when there is a decreasing return to scale. The value of γ was 84%, which means that about 84% of the variances in inefficiency were due to factors under the control of the farmers. The technical efficiency ranged between (77.41 – 86.91%). The total actual production was 2,3049.955 tons, while the potential production was 2,754.865 tons. Thus, the production loss was 2744.865 tons. It can be concluded that farmers use resources in a different way and that they work in nonhomogeneous conditions. The study recommends following scientific methods in farm management and redistributing the economic resources to ensure the achievement of the same level of production or higher in light of reducing costs

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Resource Use Efficiency of Potato Production among Smallholder Irrigated Farmers in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa

Mdoda,

Obi,

Tamako

et al. 2023

Sustainability

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Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is Africa’s second most-grown crop and is widely used as the staple food after maize. The demand for potato production is increasing and growth in the area under production is estimated at 1.25% a year. Potato has great potential when it comes to food security and farm returns for many smallholder farmers. However, potato productivity is relatively low due to many factors that contribute to the low yield (including drought, poor production practices, and limited access to high-quality seed) and inefficient use of resources. Potato farmers have no access to formal markets, which may reduce the profitability of their enterprises. Additionally, while many studies have been conducted on the resource aspect of vegetable crops, very little is known about the profit efficiency of potato producers in the country. At the same time, efforts to commercialize potato production have not delivered the expected outcomes. This study aimed to estimate the profitability of potatoes, evaluate farm-level efficiency, and identify the factors that influence the efficiency levels of potato farmers in the Eastern Cape Province who engage in irrigation farming. The study used multi-stage and snowball sampling to select 150 smallholder potato farmers from whom primary data were collected using close-ended questionnaires. The data were analyzed using descriptive, gross margin analysis and translog stochastic profit frontier (SPF) modelling. The study found potato production to be profitable by as much as ZAR 7027.11 per annum. It is shown that farm size under potato, seed, pesticides, and fertilisers contribute positively towards the improvement of efficiency while labour and hired tractors negatively affect efficiency. The average technical efficiency of potato production among irrigated smallholder farmers was 89%, indicating that potato farmers could increase output by 11% without increasing inputs. Potato farm size, years spent in school, access to extension services, family size, and non-farm income are socio-economic and institutional factors influencing the farmers’ technical efficiency. However, the farmer’s age, access to credit, and cold storage had a negative effect on their productivity. The study recommends that government and non-governmental organisations strengthen the existing extension service provided to smallholder farmers and make efforts to provide farmers with long-term training and education to increase their productivity.

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Measuring the Technical Efficiency of Potato Prduction and Its Determinats in Iraq (Baghdad Province as Case Study).

Cited by 3 publications

References 12 publications

Analyzing the efficiency of potato production in Southern Ethiopia: a stochastic frontier analysis approach

Analyzing the efficiency of potato production in Southern Ethiopia: a stochastic frontier analysis approach

Measuring Technical Efficiency and Determining the Factors Affecting the Inefficiency of Wheat Farmers in Iraq (Diyala Governorate as an Applied Model) for the Season 2021

Resource Use Efficiency of Potato Production among Smallholder Irrigated Farmers in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa

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