Determinants Of Technical Efficiency Of Smallholder Pineapple Producers In The Akuapem South Municipality

ABSTRACT The efficiency of resource-use is of major concern in agricultural production since farmers’ productivity and profitability depends on them. The study thus assesses the efficient use of production resource among small-holder pineapple farmers’ in the Akuapem South Municipality. The study area was selected since it has one of the largest numbers of small-holder pineapple producers in the country. The objective of the study was to determine and estimate the levels of resource efficiency of smallholder farmers. A cross-sectional secondary data of 150 small-holder pineapple farmers’ was used. Socio-economic factors that influence small-holder farmers’ efficiency were identified using a stochastic frontier model and the results revealed that farmers’ experience, levels of education, access to credit and age was negatively related to inefficiency. Results from the Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) also showed that the estimated coefficients of the production inputs were positively related to production with the exception of capital use. Farms size, labour and fertilizer use was the most significant production inputs that affected output of the farmers’. Results on the efficiency of resource-use indicated that farm size; labour and fertilizer which were found as being the most productive inputs were underutilized implying that an increase in these factors will affect outputs positively. The study also found that farmers exhibited increasing returns-to-scale and that in the long run output levels can be improved if farm inputs are efficiently combined. The findings of the study establishes that farmers’ efficient use of resource and productivity improvement are interlinked with their socio-economic characteristic, and thus to improve efficiency it is essential to improve the factors that affects the overall efficiencies of farmers’ such education and access to credit. Based on the findings, the study recommends among other things that government and policy-makers in the pineapple sector intensify their efforts at providing affordable credit facilities and adequate education (formal and non-formal) to small-holder farmers’ to boost their outputs. It is also recommended that planting materials be provided on a subsidized rate to farmers so as to boost the desire of younger farmers into pineapple production.