Analysis of the Technical Efficiency of Rice Production in Fogera District of Ethiopia: A Stochastic Frontier Approach

The aim of this paper is to analyze the technical efficiency of rice production in Fogera District of Ethiopia. To do so, the stochastic frontier approach was employed on a data collected from 200 sample households in the 2015/16 production year. As a result, it was found out that except for manure, all variables in the Cobb-Douglass stochastic frontier model, which includes land, fertilizer, oxen, seed, and labor, were positively and significantly related to rice production. The average technical efficiency score predicted from the estimated Cobb-Douglas stochastic frontier production function was calculated to be 77.2 percent, implying that there was a room for rice yield increment by improving the resource use efficiency of households. The study also revealed that the provision of extension services, training on rice product improvement, experience on rice farming, agrochemicals, and education tend to be positively and significantly related to technical efficiency while household size was negatively and significantly related. Thus, strengthening the extension service provision and the training on rice yield increment, campaigns to disseminate rice farming experiences, and an increase in the supply of agrochemicals were crucial to improve the technical efficiency of rice production in the study area.

本研究旨在分析埃塞俄比亚福格拉区（Fogera District）水稻生产的技术效率。为此，本研究采用随机前沿分析法（stochastic frontier approach），对2015/16生产季采集的200户样本农户的调研数据展开分析。结果显示，除有机肥外，柯布-道格拉斯（Cobb-Douglas）随机前沿模型中涵盖的土地、化肥、耕牛、种子及劳动力等所有变量，均与水稻生产呈显著正相关关系。由估计得到的柯布-道格拉斯随机前沿生产函数预测得到的平均技术效率得分为77.2%，这意味着通过优化农户的资源利用效率，仍存在水稻单产提升的空间。本研究还发现，农技推广服务供给、水稻品种改良培训、水稻种植经验、农用化学品供应及受教育程度，均与技术效率呈显著正相关关系；而家庭规模则与技术效率呈显著负相关关系。因此，强化农技推广服务供给与水稻单产提升培训、推广水稻种植经验宣传活动、增加农用化学品供应，对提升研究区域水稻生产的技术效率至关重要。