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Efficiency of GroundnutsMaize Intercropped Farms in Zoetele, South Cameroon, A Data Envelopement Approach
Efficiency of GroundnutsMaize Intercropped Farms in Zoetele, South Cameroon, A Data Envelopement Approach
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Abstract: This article aims at evaluating and analysing the production efficiency of farms (FF) in the locality of
Zoetele, South Cameroon. From a sample of 62 FF, we first estimate a model of Data Envelopment Analysis with
constant and variable returns to scale, then a censored TOBIT model enabling therefore to identify factors of
efficiency. Two main outcomes result from this study. First of all, we can see that on average, the level of technical
efficiency of FFs is 44.60% when returns to scale are constant, and 67.80% when return to scale are variable. This
shows off possibilities of efficiency substantial gains. Secondly, the farm size and the production destination impact
negatively on the technical efficiency. Finally, the adherence to a peasant organisation and age improve it. From
those results, we estimate that if one wants to improve the efficiency of the FFs, it would be interesting that the FFs
organise themselves into associations in order to benefit from experience sharing, and government and
nongovernmental organisations (NGO).
[Gilles Quentin Kane, Sikod Fondo and Abayomi Samuel Oyekale. Efficiency of Groundnuts/Maize Intercropped
Farms in Zoetele, South Cameroon: A Data Envelopement Approach. Life Sci J 2012;9(4):3955-3962]. (ISSN:
1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 590
Considering the criteria of the origin of the comes up with some conclusions and policy
family income and whether labour force is assigned to recommendations
the farm or not, Oliveira (1997) distinguishes three 2. Materials and Methods
categories of family farms: those with a productive Sample and data
function, those which serve as labour reserve and Data were collected during an investigation
those which rely mainly on social transfers for a made while the programme for the Improvement of
living (monetary resources other than incomes from Agro Pastoral Family Farms Competitiveness
the farm or external activities of the family members). (IAPFFC)4 was running in April and May 2010. Data
However, it is indispensable to precise like Gastellu collected related to FFs cultivating groundnuts and
(1980) that “the African family farm is different from maize. That was due to its importance in the region.
the European family farm”. The author substitutes the In fact, it is one of the farming systems that is mostly
term “community” which he finds more convenient practiced in the study area. Among the issues that
than “unity”, because it depicts more the privileged were investigated during the survey are:
exchanges that unite individuals of a same group. The farming system practiced in relation to
That is also the definition kept by Kleene (2007) for the inputs and outputs quantities; structural
whom the African family farm is a family team of characteristics of the FF households and Accessibility
workers cultivating together, at least a main field to of the villages during the rainy season. In the survey,
which are linked or not, one or more secondary fields 62 FFs were sampled by simple random sampling of
of variable importance depending on the case and three villages from the locality of Zoetele. The
having their own decision centres. respondents were drawn from Ntsimi (19), Otetek
Numerous works on the efficiency of farms, (21) and Ebamina (22).
both in developing and developed countries, show The Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method
that farmers are not often able to use their technical Data analysis was carried out with the DEA
potentialities and/or allocate inefficiently their method Blancard and Boussemart (2006) asserted that
productive resources (Bravo-Ureta & Evenson, 1994; this approach is particularly adapted to the modelling
Nkamleu, 2004; Nyemeck & al., 2004, 2008; of a multi input-multi output primal technology,
Latruffe, 2005; Nuama, 2006; Fontan, 2008). So far, without going through the dual cost function,
few studies have been based on Cameroon. Hence, presupposing the absence of technical inefficiency. It
this study analyses the technical efficiency of FFs in is about a method taking into consideration only
the locality of Zoetele in South-Cameroon, using the hypothesis of free disposition of inputs and outputs,
method of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and and of convexity for the whole production. It does not
then identifies factors that explain observed set any functional form of production and cost
inefficiencies using the model of the censored functions as imperative.
TOBIT. The DEA method enables us to identify an
Such an analysis is very rich because it can efficient set that can serve as reference for efficient
contribute to enlighten the government in targeting, farms. Efficient farms have inputs and outputs similar
and on the potential effects of different programmes to those of inefficient farms. Hence, they can serve as
set up in the agricultural sector. Following this reference. The purpose of DEA is to construct a non-
introduction, this article presents the methodology parametric envelopment frontier over the data points
and the analysis tools. Then the results are presented such that all observed points lie on or below the
on the distribution of indices of technical efficiency, production frontier (Coelli, 1996). Efficient farms are
and factors that explain inefficiencies. The paper located on the production frontier which indicates the
maximum production which can be made using
2 different combinations of factors for a given
It is the optimal combination, or in the best technology. In literature, the most used two variants
proportion of resources given their relative prices of the DEA method are: the Constant Return to Scale
(Amara and Romain, 2000). A farm is therefore (Charnes et al., 1978) model which supposes constant
declared allocatively efficient if at a given level of returns to scale (CRS model) and the BCC (Banker et
production, the cost of factors is minimum. al. 1984) model which supposes variables returns to
3
The economic efficiency, generally known scale (VRS model).
under the name of “total efficiency” is jointly Following Coelli (1996), suppose there is a
determined by technical efficiency and allocative set of information on K inputs and M outputs for each
efficiency. It is the product of those two types of
efficiency. An agricultural farm is then said to be
4
economically efficient if it is at the same time In french : « programme d’Amélioration de
technically efficient and allocates efficiently its la Compétitivité des Exploitations Familiales
productive resources. Agropastorales (ACEFA) ».
used and cost of seeds); than the outputs that are from Where n represents the number of
the agricultural production. Finally, the choice of one observations, and δ the standard deviation.
specific orientation or another has only a slight The complete empirical form of the TOBIT model
influence on the obtained scores, and consequently on that we are going to estimate is the following:
the ranking of the production units. Yi 0 1 AGE 2 EDUCATION 3TRAINING 4 SIZE 5 PO 6 DESTPROD
(4)
In this section, the results obtained from data
In relationship (4);
analysis are presented and discussed as outlined
o Xi is a vector of explanatory variables,
below. Three sections are used in the presentation as
o β is a vector representing parameters to
follows: firstly, the characteristics of the FFs,
estimate,
secondly, the levels of efficiency estimates; finally,
o Yi is a latent variable that can be considered
the determinants of efficiency of the FFs.
as the threshold from which Xi affect the
Socio-economic Characteristics of Farmers
efficiency of a FF.
From table 2, on average, the sampled family
The “inefficiency” dependent variable in the
farms produce 172.34 Kg of groundnuts. However,
frame of this study continues to be limited to zero.
we notice a huge disparity among FFs. This can be
Considering that perturbations ui are identically
linked to the variability of endowment of FFs in with
distributed following a normal
resources. We also notice huge disparities in the
distribution N 0, u2 , the estimation of the above production of maize of FFs. Added to the variability
censored TOBIT model is done through the of endowment of FFs with resources, the use of
maximisation of the probability logarithm which is: improved seeds by a specific FF can explain that
n 2 disparity.
n n
1
Y X
i i The inputs of land, labour and capital have
log L log 1 X i / log
i 1
respectively average values of 0.72 ha, 115.60 m/d
i 1 i 1 2 2 2
and XAF 36057.24. The average family farm leader
(5) is about 46 years old. For the farming system studied,
half of the FFs were producing only for family
9
consumption.
A regression model is said to be censored Concerning the level of education, majority
when one has at least observations of explanatory of the FFs heads have been to the primary school.
variables on the whole sample. Less than half of FFs heads belonged to peasant
10
On the other hand, a regression model is organisations (PO) (37.10%). FFs heads that had
said to be truncated when all the observations of some form of trainings in agriculture represent around
explanatory variables and of the dependent variable, the quarter of the sample(25.80%).
showing out of a certain interval are totally lost.
Table 2: Summary statistics of farmers' For the whole sample, land is on average the
characteristics most used factor in excess. The additional excess of
land is 10.9%. Therefore, the FFs could reduce their
use of land by 55.5% on average, which means 44.6%
Variable mean
(proportional reduction depicted by the technical
efficiency) plus 10.9% (non proportional reduction
Amount of groundnuts 172.34
depicted by the additional excess, applying only on
(kg) the land factor), whilst producing at the same level.
Amount of maize (kg) 81.02 This result reflects the overuse of land previously
Labor (man/day) 115.60 mentioned, and may be justified by the abundance of
the resource.
Size (ha) 0.72
Concerning labour, the FFs could on average
Capital (xaf) 36057.24
reduce their use of this factor by 50.05%; whereas an
Age (years) 46 average reduction of capital of 53.83% would be
Education ( Binary 0.45 possible with the same level of production.
variable) The FFs of the Nsimi and Ebamina villages
Training ( Binary 0.26
show a noticeable overuse of capital and labour
factors, compared to those of Otetek village.
variable)
Nevertheless labour is the less used compared to the
OP ( Binary variable) 0.37 others (on average 5.45% against 10.9% and 7.23%).
DESTPROD ( Binary 0.55
variable) Table 3: Additional excess of factors (total technical
efficiency), percentage of the level of factor used
have a negative effect on efficiency. The coefficient efficiently their resources when the farm size is big.
of the level on education being positive, we can This can be explained by the gender of the FFs
conclude that cultivation leaders with a primary leaders who are in majority females and consequently
school education are less efficient than the ones with do not have the labour force necessary for an efficient
a secondary and higher school education. production. The quasi-elasticity obtained indicates
Training in agriculture does not contribute that a variation of a unit of the farm size would cause
significantly (p>0.10) to the explanation of technical a variation of the probability to be inefficient by
efficiency in the total sample. Indeed, this counter 13.02%. The negative relationship between the size of
intuitive result can be explained with various reasons. the cultivation and technical efficiency was also
The nature of trainings in agriculture and their length depicted by Chirwa (1998) in the case of Malawi.
enable us to understand the situation. Also, the low Other studies on the contrary show the positive
representation in the sample of the FFs leaders who influence of the size of the cultivation of technical
have been through an agricultural training (less than efficiency (Thiam and al., 2001; Nyemeck and al.,
25%) may explain this result. Added to that, trainings 2004; Latruffe, 2005).
in agriculture in the southern part of Cameroon are The membership to a peasant organisation
generally organised in the form of seminars to affects positively the technical efficiency. In
farmers. The seminars are based principally on Cameroon, since the crisis on the 80s the government
income generating farming systems (cocoa, coffee, encourages cultivators to put themselves together. It is
palm oil...) On the same hand, these seminars are in fact the only way for cultivators to benefit from
sometimes too theoretical and are not accompanied by control, subventions and counsels of the government
practical examples due to financial and time (ACEFA programme which is replacing progressively
constraints. Nevertheless, the minus sign of the the National Programme for Agriculture
coefficient associated with the training variable means Vulgarisation and Research “NPAVR”), and from
that training in agriculture has a positive impact on Non Governmental Organisations (NGO). This notice
efficiency, but insignificantly. confirms the results of the literature according to
Variables that explain significantly the which, social capital: membership to a peasant
technical efficiency of FFs in the sample are: the age organisation being a component, has a positive impact
of the FF heads, the farm size, the membership to a on technical efficiency (Nuama, 2006; Audibert,
peasant organisation and the destination of the 1997). Indeed, the communal organisation enables the
production. resolution of problems such as labour force and
The minus sign of the coefficient affected to access to credit which are factors that improve the
the cultivator age translates the fact that the variable technical efficiency of cultivators (Helfand and
impacts positively on the technical efficiency of the Levine, 2004). Technical efficiency gains linked to
family farms of the sample. Here, the oldest membership to a peasant organisation are 11.44%.
cultivation leaders are more efficient than the young It also comes out from the analysis of the
people. This result is explained by the experience of determinants of technical efficiency that, the FFs
the oldest people. Indeed, the average experience of whose production destination is auto consumption are
the sample in the practice of agriculture is 20 years. less efficient than those, which in addition to auto
The culture system based on groundnut and maize of consumption sell their production. The sale constraint
the locality of Zoetele in South Cameroon is therefore obliges cultivators to be more efficient and to better
practiced for some cultivators, during the whole of manage their resources. As a matter of fact, efficiency
their life. The result is in contradiction with Coelli gains of FFs whose production destination is auto
and Fleming (2004) remark for whom; younger consumption and sale are 21.23%.
cultivators are more efficient than older cultivators. Coming to the end of the investigations, it
According to the authors, younger people are more comes out that there are possibilities of substantial
disposed to accept new technologies and efficiency because the FFs can on average reduce the
vulgarisation. Besides, an analysis of marginal effects use of the factors of production by 55.4% when
shows that all things being equal, a variation of the returns on scale are constant and by 32.2% when
age by a year would cause a variation of the returns on scale are variables, while keeping the same
probability to be inefficient by 0.54%. level of production, all things being equal. This result
Results also suggest in disagreement with confirms the idea according to which the agricultural
intuition that, the smallest cultivations are the most sector both in developed countries and in those who
efficient all things being equal. Indeed, in the sample, are not, suffers from inefficiency (Bravo-Ureta and
we demonstrated by analysing the scale efficiency the Evenson, 1994; Nyemeck and al., 2004, 2008;
existence of a huge waste due to the excessive use of Latruffe, 2005; Fontan, 2008).
land. This means that cultivators are not able to use
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