Technical efficiency impact of participating in development interventions of the vegetableoil subsector among sunflower producers

A key policy concern in African agriculture is low productivity even when new technologies are generated, disseminated and adopted among farmers. This study used a cross-sectional dataset from a sample of 202 sunflower farmers drawn from Northern Uganda to determine technical efficiency and assess the influence of farm management capabilities, development intervention and socio-economic factors on technical efficiency. Results reveal that technical inefficiency among sunflower farmers account for 81% of farm-level output. Further, farm management capabilities (P<0.01), participation in development interventions (P<0.01) and reliance on certified seeds (P<0.01) significantly reduce farmer inefficiency and thus, improve technical efficiency. The study highlights that focusing on farm management capabilities to improve farm efficiency is more cost-saving for realizing economic gains in sunflower production than introducing new technologies. We recommend a policy focus on using approaches such as farmer field schools that ensures farmer advisory services at all critical stages of crop growth.

非洲农业领域的核心政策关切之一在于：即便新技术已完成研发、推广并在农户群体中得到应用，农业生产效率仍处于较低水平。本研究采用来自乌干达北部202名向日葵种植户的抽样横截面数据集（cross-sectional dataset），旨在测算技术效率（technical efficiency），并评估农场管理能力、发展干预项目以及社会经济因素对技术效率的影响。研究结果显示，向日葵种植户的技术无效率使得农场实际产出较潜在最优水平低81%。此外，农场管理能力（P<0.01）、参与发展干预项目（P<0.01）以及采用认证种子（P<0.01）均能显著降低农户的技术无效率，从而提升技术效率。本研究指出，相较于引入新技术，通过强化农场管理能力来提升农场效率，在实现向日葵生产的经济收益方面更具成本效益。我们建议政策制定者聚焦于采用农民田间学校等模式，确保在作物生长的所有关键阶段为农户提供专业咨询服务。