Technical efficiency among the food crop farmers in Rivers State Nigeria- a stochastic frontier approach

This study estimated technical efficiency and isolated determinants of technical inefficiency among food crop farmers in Rivers State, Nigeria. The data was collected with structured questionnaire from 180 food crop farmers randomly selected from 10 out of the 15 upland LGAs that make up Rivers State. A stochastic frontier production function was estimated by using the maximum likelihood estimation technique to obtain the technical efficiency of food crop farmers. The mean technical efficiency was 73 percent. The generalized likelihood test indicated that, the food crop farmers were not fully technically efficient in resource use. The determinants of technical inefficiency among the food crop farmers were extension contact and cooperative membership. There is 27 percent allowance to increase technical efficiency by implementing policies geared towards encouraging food crop farmers to join cooperative societies. This could be achieved by skewing credit liberalization in favour of food crop farmers who are members of cooperative societies. Furthermore, stepping up of extension contacts through the training of more extension agents among others is expected to increase the prevailing level of technical efficiency among food crop farmers in Rivers State, Nigeria. Keywords: Technical, efficiency; stochastic frontier; food, crop