Technical efficiency of pineapple production and challenges in Southern Benin

Abstract

The need to improve the productivity and quality of pineapple produced to meet demand and supply with international standards necessitates exploring production potentials. So, assessing the technical efficiency of pineapple producers is essential to avoid waste of resources and above all to target advices for improving the productivity of the pineapple producers. Studies conducted on pineapple in Benin have paid less attention to the resource requirements and its determinants. This study estimated technical efficiencies of pineapple producers in Benin and identified some socio-economic factors which influence them. A random sampling was employed to select 253 producers in five districts of pineapple production in southern Benin. Stochastic frontier production function approach using a translog production function was used to estimate the technical efficiencies of pineapple producers, while the inefficiency model was used to determine the socio-economic factor affecting the technical efficiencies. The results showed that the level of technical efficiency ranged from 96.87% to 96.96% with a mean of 96.91%, which suggests that average pineapple output was 3.04% short of the maximum possible level. This implies that producers could still improve the technical efficiency by 3.04%. This study shows that market access, labor, land access, fertilizer access, credit access and soil quality could increase productivity of pineapple production if monitored. Government must take appropriate measures to technically support producers and hope for improved quality of pineapple meeting international standards.