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Technical Efficiency among Smallholder Rice Farmers: A Comparative Analysis of Three Agro‐ecological Zones in Cameroon
Author(s) -
Njikam Ousmanou,
Alhadji Hamidou Azi
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
african development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.654
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1467-8268
pISSN - 1017-6772
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8268.12236
Subject(s) - inefficiency , agriculture , production (economics) , geography , consumption (sociology) , agroforestry , agricultural economics , ecology , economics , environmental science , biology , social science , archaeology , sociology , macroeconomics , microeconomics
Rice production in Cameroon is characterized by smallholder type of production, disease‐plagued farms, huge inefficiency, and largely depends on agro‐ecological conditions. So, the country imports most of its domestic consumption needs of rice. Using survey data from 1,141 Cameroonian smallholder rice farmers, their scores of technical efficiency, determinants and the extent of their variability across three agro‐ecological zones are analyzed. The results suggest significant room for improvement in the farmers’ technical efficiency which varies largely across and within agro‐ecological zones. Correlates of technical efficiency differentials among the farmers differ across agro‐ecological zones, ranging from the age and experience of farmer and land ownership in the Sahel, age of farmer, land ownership and distance village‐farm in the western highland, to agricultural training in the bimodal humid rain forest zone.