Abstract

Kassa Chanie* and Tsegaye Molla

Background: In Ethiopia, cereal crops are a large part of the agricultural sector, of which sorghum accounts for the third largest portion of the cereals. However, Ethiopian agriculture is characterized by low productivity due to natural, social, economic, and institutional factors. Farmers with homogeneous resources produce different outputs per hectare due to inefficient utilization of limited resources. There is no due attention given to crop production efficiency issues, particularly in the country's sorghum production. The overall objective was to assess level of technical efficiency and its determinant factors in Dejen district, North-Western, Ethiopia.

Methodology: Using a two stage sampling procedure a total of 192 sorghum producer sample households was selected. The study employed both descriptive statistics and econometric analysis. The Cobb-Douglas production functional form of the stochastic frontier model was used for econometric analysis.

Results: In the Cobb-Douglas stochastic frontier model, the estimated coefficients revealed that land, labor, oxen power, seed, and fertilize are significant explanatory variables that influence household output levels positively. While, the inefficiency model explanatory variables; education, family size, farm experience, livestock holding, extension contact, credit access, and training determine technical efficiency significantly and positively, whereas plot distance significantly and negatively determined technical efficiency in the study area.

Conclusion: According to our studies, the average technical efficiency of sorghum producers was 62.8%, with a minimum of 23.5% and a maximum of 96.7%. The estimated gamma (γ) value was 73.4% which indicates that the large portion of the error term was due to the presence of inefficiencies in resource utilization, resulting in output variation. On average, there is about 37.2% of output variation from the optimal production for each farmer in the study area. Farmers in the study area can improve this output variation by utilizing existing resources and technology efficiently. Therefore, it should be given due attention to strengthening adult education and establishing the required facilities; appropriate and adequate extension services should be provided for sorghum producers; provision of improved veterinary services, feed, and water supplies should be encouraged, and credit providing institutions like micro finances should be established and expanded in the study area.