Abstract:
Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is the main staple food in Ethiopia, high productivity and
efficiency in its production is crucial to food security in the country. Therefore, this study
aimed to analyzing the technical efficiency of Smallholder wheat producer in Simada
district of south Gondar zone in Ethiopia. The objective of study was to measure the level
of technical efficiency of wheat producers and to identify factors that contribute for
efficiency differences among smallholder farmers in the study area. The study was based
on cross-sectional data collected from 154 wheat producer farmers by multi- stag
sampling technique during 2017/18 production season. For data collection personal
interview through a structural interview scheduled was employed. Descriptive and
inferential statistics with STATA version 14 were used for data analysis. Technical
efficiency of sampled farmer in wheat production was estimated and analyzed by Cobb-
Douglas functional form in stochastic frontier model (SFM) with single stage estimation
method. The estimated SFM indicated that land, labor and seed were significantly and
positively influence wheat production at1 percent of significant level. However, urea was
negatively influence wheat production at 10 percent of significant level. Production
function in wheat production existed in increasing return to scale (1.22). The estimated
gamma (γ) parameter was about 0.29.It indicated that the relative deviations of actual
output from the frontier output due to inefficiency. The estimated mean level of TE of
wheat producers was 0.79. From specific socioeconomic and institutional factors
hypothesized that influence technical efficiency of farmers in wheat production, credit
access and frequency of extension contact were significantly and positively influence the
level of technical efficiency in wheat production at 10 percent of significance level.
Education level was significantly and negatively influences the level of technical
efficiency in wheat production at10 percent of significance level. Raw sowing and
frequency of plowing were significantly and negatively influence the level of technical
efficiency in wheat production at 5and1 percent of significance level, respectively. Therefore, the study suggested the above mentioned significant variables have important
for policy implications in that development programs may give fruitful attention so as to
mitigate the existing level of inefficiency of farmers in the production of wheat in study
area.
