Socio-Economic, Pedological and Climate Determinants of Producers’ Technical Efficiency in Mali

This paper uses data from the National Surveys‟ data from the Living Standards Measurement Study and the Integrated Surveys on Agriculture for Mali of 2014 to analyze socio-economic, pedological and climate determinants of producers‟ technical efficiency in Mali. To do so, a stochastic production frontier was estimated for each crop category and the full sample. Globally, the finding is that different stochastic parameters affect significantly the technical efficiency of different crop categories producing plots. On average, we have an efficiency score of 55.00% for the full sample. The cash crop producing plots are technically more efficient than cereal crop producing plots. Regarding the results, the setting up the following measures is highly recommended: provide adequate training methods of new technologies and new agricultural practices for cereal crop producers, crop diversification must be introduced to the production system and the promotion of better irrigation systems.