Technical inefficiency in dry season vegetable farming among urban women in the humid region of Southeastern Nigeria

Abstract

Stochastic production frontier function is applied to estimate output-oriented technical inefficiency of urban women cultivating waterleaf. By means of MLE, asymptotically consistent and efficient maximum likelihood (ML) estimates are obtained together with inefficiency determinants. Empirical result reveals the mean level of technical inefficiency of 65%, showing that there exists scope for increasing crop production by 35% with the present technology. The result further shows the existence of constant returns to scale and positive marginal productivities of the input used. The study therefore recognises that growth in waterleaf output in the long run must rely on improvements in technical efficiency.

Keywords: waterleaf production, technical inefficiency, stochastic function, urban women, Nigeria

Moor Journal of Agricultural Research Vol. 5(1) 2004: 59-66