Technical Efficiency and Its Determinants on Irish Potato Farming among Small Holder Farmers in Trans-Nzoia County-Kenya
- June 3, 2019
- Posted by: RSIS
- Category: Economics
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue V, May 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186
Augustine Wafula Barasa1, Paul Okelo Odwori2, Josephine Barasa3, Steven Ochieng1
1Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, University of Eldoret, P. O. Box 1125-30100, Eldoret, Kenya,
2Department of Economics, University of Eldoret, P. O. Box 1125-30100, Eldoret, Kenya.
3Department of Soil Science, University of Eldoret, P. O. Box 1125-30100, Eldoret, Kenya.
Abstract: – Increased pressure on land brought about by increased population in the highlands of Western Kenya such as Trans Nzoia County has led to increased land fragmentation and forced farmers to diversify their crops to alternative value chains that are more profitable and take less time to mature. An example of an innovation being promoted is the adoption of Irish potato as an alternative to maize farming. However, in determining farm productivity, onlyfew studies have looked at the efficiency of the Irish potato production. This has prompted this study to determine the technical efficiencies of smallholder farmers’ Irish potato production in the study area by providing empirical evidence on smallholder resource use efficiency. The objective of the study was todetermine the technical efficiency and factors affecting it among smallholder Irish potato farmers in Trans Nzoia County.Exactly, 384 farmers were selected through a multi stage random sampling in Trans Nzoia County. The respondents were interviewed with the help of open and closed ended questionnaires. Data was analyzed using stochastic frontier models.The mean technical efficiency index was estimated at 0.65 indicating an opportunity of 35% for farmers to attain full efficiency. Technical efficiency was positively influenced by age of farmers (0.01); Education years (0.06); Years of farming experience (0.05); Frequency of extension services (0.05); Land Size (0.02) and negatively influenced by Household size. To achieve full efficiency of production, this study recommended the policy makers to factor in the socio economic characteristics of farmers while promoting alternative crop value chains and strengthen the extension services to potato growers.
Keywords: Crop diversity, innovation, resource use efficiency, stochastic frontier models, value chains.
I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, Western Kenya has experienced an increase in population leading to land fragmentation of the former large scale farms (Jayne, Chamberlin, & Headey, 2014) and the evolution of smallholder farmers.Trans-Nzoia County of Western Kenya, which has been known to be the Kenya’s food basket,has also been affected by this phenomenon(Otieno, Jayne, & Muyanga, 2015).
