Technical Efficiency in Rice Production Among Smallholder Farmers in Central Liberia: A Stochastic Production Frontier Analysis

Demand for rice remains high in Liberia with low farm-level productivity (1.2 t/ha). The ability of smallholder rice farmers to improve output levels and attain sustainable production depends on efficient farm practices, hence technical efficiency. A stochastic frontier production function was applied to examine the technical efficiency of rice production. A two stage random sampling with stratification was used to collect data from 400 rice farmers in Bein Garr and Panta Districts, Central Liberia. The study has revealed that technical efficiency among farmers range from 14% to 88%, with the mean of 55%; indicating that on average, the actual output can be increased by 45% in the study area with the available technology and resources.  The determinants explaining efficiency variation in the study area were education, farming experience, household size, credit access, group membership and the type of seed used. The study recommends policies that target on increasing and improving farmers’ access to credit so as to enable the farmers get the needed production inputs such as improved seeds and fertilizer on time. Furthermore, farmers should be encouraged to organize themselves into associations/cooperatives around major rice producing and processing hubs. Keywords: smallholder farmers, rice, technical efficiency, stochastic frontier, Liberi

Food System Dynamics: Anticipating and Adapting to Change

This paper underscores the scope and nature of needed responses to the rapidly changing food systems in Africa. The paper identifies key drivers of this change and estimates their magnitudes. The drivers identified are urbanization, per capita income growth, globalization and climate change. Emphasis is laid on the former two largely because these are drivers of predictable change

COMMERCIALISATION PATHWAYS: IMPLICATIONS ON SMALLHOLDER RICE FARMERS’ PRODUCTIVITY AND WELFARE IN MBARALI DISTRICT, TANZANIA

This study aimed at evaluating the most effective commercialisation pathway (smallholder and inclusive) and its impacts on productivity and welfare on smallholder rice farmers in the pathways versus rain-fed farmers in Mbarali District. Output and input commercialisation indices (CCI and ICI) and propensity score matching were used for data analysis. The overall output commercialisation was more than half of the produced rice (CCI=59%) but the use of improved inputs in the study area was low (ICI = 27%). The proportion of rice sold was higher in the inclusive pathway (80%) relative to smallholder pathway (70%) and rain-fed scheme (41%). Total factor productivity ranged between 1.17 - 1.21 and 0.98 – 1.02 in the smallholder and inclusive pathways respectively more than that in the rain-fed scheme. In terms of welfare, inclusive pathway was better-off relative to the two groups. Therefore, both smallholder and inclusive pathways should be adopted to explore the synergies