Determinants of agricultural technical efficiency and technology adoption in Mozambique
Abstract
This dissertation provides new estimates of farm household efficiency and its determinants, and analyzes the determinants of technology adoption among smallholder farmers in Mozambique. A translog stochastic frontier production function and a first difference model incorporating a model of farm household inefficiency effects are applied to test the existence of agricultural farm household inefficiencies and their determinants in Mozambique. Data were obtained from “Trabalho de Inquérito Agrícola” (TIA), a farm income household survey conducted in two agricultural seasons (2001/02 and 2004/05). The null hypothesis of equal farm household efficiency among households was rejected. Variation in farm household efficiency indicates that access to agricultural technology is a severe constraint for most farm households. Farm household efficiency varied widely across household and across provinces and agro-ecologies. Factors such as access to advisory services, access to rural credit, membership to an agricultural association, use of improved agricultural technology (irrigation, improved seeds, animal traction and chemical inputs) among others, were found to reduce significantly the level of household farm household inefficiencies. Households with easy access to land tended to have low farm household efficiency indices. Farm households led by females were less efficient than male headed households. Empowering women is especially important because they provide most of the agricultural labor and are increasingly heading rural households. Analysis of change of panel data indicates that the stochastic production frontier moved but many farmers did not catch up. Changes in access to extension, access to credit explain changes in the inefficiency change between 2002 and 2005. Analysis of new agricultural technology adoption indicates that, holding other factors constant, households with access to agricultural advisory services, those with access to rural credit and members of agricultural associations are more likely to adopt new agricultural technologies. Changes in technology adoption are associated with changes in extension access and changes in credit access as well as initial status of farm household on access to credit and access to extension services.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Masters, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Agricultural economics
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