Boakye, K. (2019) - TE farm data

This research aimed at estimating the technical efficiencies of smallholder pineapple farmers using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique. The DEA technique was appropriate because it allowed the researcher to estimate technical efficiency on constant returns assumptions, variable returns assumptions, and further compute the scale efficicincy. The Central Region of Ghana was purposefully selected in this study since it is one of the major pineapple growing areas in Ghana. The sampling process includes 15 smallholder pineapple farmers from the Abura-Asiebu-Kwamankese district, 875 farmers from the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirem district and 1051 from the Ekumfi district as designated by Ghanaian Department of Agriculture across the Central Region.

The technique on sample size determination for a given population was suggested in Krejcie and Morgan (1970) which was used to delineate the current sample size based on the sampling frame(s). As a result, 320 smallholder pineapple farmers were used. Due to uncertainty and constraints or unavailability of survey respondents, Marc, et al., (2005) advised the rationale for keeping provision of 10% of the sample to reflect the non-responses and errors occurred in the process of data collection.