Abstract:
Indtroduction: Currently, Ethiopia is following an agricultural development-led industrialization
strategy with a major goal of helping agriculture grow so that it can encourage
growth in other sectors of the country’s economy. However, it is characterized by
low productivity due to technical and socioeconomic factors. To improve this problem,
integration of modern technologies with improved level of efficiency becomes more
crucial. Therefore, this study tries to fill the gap by investigating efficiency variations
and factors affecting technical efficiency of red pepper production in North Gondar
zone Amhara regional state, Ethiopia.
Methods: By using multistage sampling, cross-sectional data were collected from 385
systematically selected households. Stochastic frontier Cobb–Douglas production was
estimated.
Result and conclusion: The results of the analysis revealed that a mean technical
efficiency of red pepper was 78.80% (ranging from 16 to 94.9%). This implies that red
pepper producers can reduce current level of input application by 21.2% given the
existing technology level. The estimated stochastic production frontier (SPF) model
also indicates that land, seed, chemical, oxen and labor are significant determinants of
red pepper production level. The estimated SPF model together with the inefficiency
parameters shows that age, education status, land size, land fragmentation, extension
service, credit access and market information were found to statistically and significantly
affect the level of TE of red pepper farmers in the study area. Hence, emphasis
should be given to improve the efficiency level of those less efficient farmers by
adopting the practices of relatively efficient farmers in the area so that they can be able
to operate at the frontier. Specifically the concerned body should provide adult and
vocational education for the farmers and create opportunities for farmers with lower
technical efficiency to have experience and best practices sharing with those that
scored efficiency scores close to one.
