Technical Efficiency and Its Determinants of Rice Production in Cambodia

Abstract

Abstract:The present study aims to measure the technical efficiency and establish core factors affecting rice production in Cambodia. A four-year dataset generated from the central government document "Profile on Economics and Social" of 25 entire provinces between 2012 and 2015 and the stochastic production frontier model (SFA) was applied. The results indicated that the level of output (quantity) of Cambodian rice production varied according to the different level of capital investment in agricultural machineries, total rice actual harvested area, and technical fertilizer application within provinces. Furthermore, evidence revealed that the overall mean efficiency of rice production is 78.4%, which implies that there is still room to further improve technical efficiency given the same level of inputs and technology. More importantly, the findings revealed that irrigation, production techniques and amount of agricultural supporting staff are the most important influencing factors of rice production's technical efficiency in Cambodia. In conclusion, the present study strongly recommends the development of irrigation systems and good water management practices to be considered and bring about more effective actions by the central government as well as related agencies for improving rice production in Cambodia in addition to capital investment and improving technical skills of supporting staff and rural farmers.

An Analysis of Technical Efficiency for Household's Rice Production in Cambodia: A Case Study of Three Districts in Battambang Province

“…Coelli [22] had developed the software FRONTIER 4.1c, which can be used to generate both the stochastic production frontier and the inefficiency model simultaneously. Moreover, the FRONTIER 4.1c was widely applied in different fields of research in the recent years, especially in agricultural studies like [15,17,20,[23][24][25][26][27][28] for instance.…”

Improving the Technical Efficiency of Sengcu Rice Producers through Better Financial Management and Sustainable Farming Practices in Mountainous Areas of Vietnam

“…If farmers still use both kinds of fertilizers, a nutritional imbalance occurs and the consequence is that the rate of partially filled grains increases. This advice is similar to previous studies such as Hien et al and Chen et al [10,62], but contrary to other authors [12,13,34,63]. Another suggestion to improve the soil fertility and optimize crop yield related to organic manure is that all farmers should apply about 2 to 3 times the current amount.…”

“…Although DEA has the advantage of evaluating multiple inputs and outputs simultaneously, it is not necessary for this study because it does not take into account the random events and/or factors in the model. Therefore, in this case, the SPF model is recommended because agricultural production frequently suffers from potential risks from natural conditions such as climate, disease, and the like [28,33,34].…”

The Potential for Developing Organic and Non-Organic Rice in Bantul District, Special Region of Yogyakarta

“…The efficiency index value of organic rice farming in Bantul is higher than that of organic rice farming in Sragen Distric namely 0.7 [17], higher than organic rice farming in Tasikmalaya District at 0.86 [15], greater from paddy farming Integrated Crop Management program in Riau Regency amount to 0.87 [20], higher than rice farming in West Java Province 0.742 [21], Bantul Regency Special Region of Yogyakarta at 0.71 [22]. This level of technical efficiency is also higher than the technical efficiency of rice farming in several countries such as Vietnam at 0.816 [23], Cambodia at 0.786 [24], Pakistan at 0.91 [25] and Nigeria at 0.63 [26].…”