Technical Efficiency of Rice Farmers using a Stochastic Frontier Analysis - A Case Study of Cameroon North-West Region -

Agriculture is the mainstay of Cameroon economy as it serves the purpose of employment, food, and livelihood. However, Cameroon agriculture is plague by low productivity, inefficiency in production and dependent on imports. For this reason, this study examined the technical efficiency of rice farmers in Cameroon North-West region. Data were collected from 144 farmers using structured questionnaires and interview schedule. The Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and a stochastic frontier analysis. The result from the stochastic frontier analysis shows that the variance parameters (sigma square and gamma) were statistically significant. The coefficient of farm size, fertilizers, labor and herbicides were positive and significant. The mean technical efficiency level was 84 percent implying that rice farmers’ technical efficiency could be increased by 16 percent if the available resources are efficiently utilized. The inefficiency model shows that credit access is the significant factor that is negatively related to technical inefficiency. This finding is in line with government efforts (SEMRY, UNVDA, CARFIC, and The Second Generation Agriculture) of providing credits to farmers to improve their productivity.